One of the best-loved and most versatile opera stars of the last 40 years, Sir Willard White has performed in the most prestigious opera houses and concert halls throughout the world.
Highlights of the 2018/19 season include Gorjantchikov in From the House of the Dead at La Monnaie and Opéra National de Lyon, Thibaut d'Arc in Tchaikovsky's The Maid of Orleans at Theater an der Wien and Créon in Médée at the Grand Théâtre de Genève. Recent highlights include Gorjantchikov in From the House of the Dead at the Paris Opera and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Publio in La Clemenza di Tito for Dutch National Opera, Cadmus in The Bassarids at the Salzburg Festival, the Commendatore in Don Giovanni at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, a return to the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for The Cunning Little Vixen under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle, Schigolch in Lulu at English National Opera and for Rome Opera, the Doctor in Wozzeck for Dutch National Opera, Oreste / Giove in Il Giasone at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Publio in La Clemenza di Tito at the Salzburg Festival, Trinity Moses in Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny for Rome Opera and at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, and Arkel in Pelléas et Mélisande at the Metropolitan Opera and, in 2016 conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Sir Willard White was born in Jamaica, where he commenced his musical training at the Jamaican School of Music and then went on to the Juilliard School in New York. Since his operatic debut with the New York City Opera in 1974, he has sung regularly at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, English National Opera, San Francisco Opera, the opera houses of Munich, Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Geneva, Hamburg, Madrid, Paris, and at the Glyndebourne, Aix-en-Provence and Salzburg festivals.
He made his LA Opera debut in 1995 as Golaud in Pelléas et Mélisande.
In 1989, White performed the title role of Othello in Trevor Nunn’s production for the Royal Shakespeare Company, alongside Sir Ian McKellen as Iago and Imogen Stubbs as Desdemona.
