Willard White

Willard White was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1946 and studied at the Juillard School of Music after Evelyn Rothwell encouraged him to pursue a career in music. He made his opera debut in 1974, singing Colline for New York City Opera, and rapidly found himself in demand throughout Europe and the US: his most famous roles include Bartok's Bluebeard, Claggart in Billy Budd, Boris Godunov, Wotan and Gershwin's Porgy, which he sang on the first-ever stereo recording of the opera in 1977 and in Trevor Nunn's acclaimed televised production from Glyndebourne in 1993. Renowned for his keen dramatic instinct and charismatic stage-presence, White has also made successful forays into straight theatre, most notably as Otello in Nunn's 1990 RSC production, opposite Sir Ian McKellen and Imogen Stubbs.