The bass-baritone Willard White was born in Jamaica, and has enjoyed a 40-year stage career. His engagements in the 2025/26 season have included Bartolo (Le nozze di Figaro) at the Washington National Opera, Monterone (Rigoletto) at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, Méphistophélès in concert performances of La Damnation de Faust with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and the baritone solo in William Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast with the Bath Bach Choir.
He has also appeared in recitals and concerts at London’s Wigmore Hall, the Liberation International Music Festival in Jersey, for the Temple Music Foundation and the Gatehouse Music Society and with the New Mill Male Voice Choir, the Cornwall Symphony Chorus and the Brodsky Quartet.
Recent engagements have included Arkel (Pelléas et Mélisande) at the Dallas Opera; Porgy (Porgy and Bess) and Bluebeard (Bluebeard’s Castle) at the Hungarian State Opera in Budapest; Bartolo at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich; Abbot in Britten’s Curlew River at the Aldeburgh Festival; Priest in the world premiere of Hèctor Parra’s Justice and Créon in Cherubini’s Médée at the Grand Théâtre de Genève; King (Aida) at the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen; Dikoj (Káťa Kabanová) at the Opéra national de Lyon; Blind Ballad-Singer / Recorder of Norwich in Britten’s Gloriana, Jupiter (Orphée aux enfers) and Schigolch (Lulu) at the English National Opera; Schigolch at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome; Monterone for Opera North; Seneca (L’incoronazione di Poppea) at the Vienna State Opera; Luther / Crespel (Les Contes d’Hoffmann) at La Monnaie in Brussels; Trinity Moses (Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny) at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence; Gorjančikov (From the House of the Dead) at the Paris Opéra, Covent Garden, La Monnaie and in Lyon; Thibault d’Arc in Tchaikovsky’s The Maid of Orleans at the Theater an der Wien; Publio (La clemenza di Tito) in Copenhagen, Rome, at Covent Garden and at the Salzburg Festival; Cadmus in Henze’s The Bassarids in Salzburg and Commendatore (Don Giovanni) at Covent Garden.
He has performed with internationally renowned orchestras and conductors in concert.
In 1989 he appeared with the Royal Shakespeare Company in the title role in Trevor Nunn’s production of Othello, performing alongside Ian McKellen and Imogen Stubbs.
In 1995 he was awarded the Order of the British Empire, and in 2004 he was knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours. In 2023 he was named a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur.
