[Sir Willard White]
John Malveaux of MusicUNTOLD tells AfriClassical of performances by the bass-baritone Sir Willard White at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Friday, November 19; Saturday, November 20; and Sunday, November 21, 2010:
Artists:
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor
Anne Sofie von Otter, (Judith), mezzo-soprano
Sir Willard White, (Bluebeard), bass-baritone
Brian Gale, lighting designer
CCH Pounder, narrator
Los Angeles Master Chorale, Grant Gershon, music director
Program:
Lindberg: Graffiti (US premiere)
Bartók: Bluebeard’s Castle
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 making his debut with the New York City Opera he has sung regularly at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden; the Metropolitan Opera, New York; English National Opera; the opera houses of San Francisco, Munich, Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Geneva, Hamburg, Los Angeles, Madrid, and Paris; and at the Glyndebourne, Aix-en-Provence, and Salzburg Festivals. White’s huge repertoire includes bass-baritone roles in operas by John Adams, Bartók, Monteverdi, Handel, Henze, Mozart, Rossini, Verdi, Puccini, Wagner, Debussy, Shostakovich, Mussorgsky, Prokofiev, Messiaen, and Gershwin.”
“His concert program Robeson Re-Explored, performed with a small group of versatile musicians and string quartet, follows upon the huge success of the first program, An Evening with Willard White – a tribute to Paul Robeson, which was performed at Festivals throughout the U.K., in the U.S., in Porto, and in Reykjavik; shown on BBC television; and issued on CD. His CD My Way was released on the Sony label and his latest CD, Bluebeard’s Castle with the London Symphony Orchestra under Gergiev, has been released on the LSO Live label. Recent engagements include the title-role in Henze’s El Cimarron with the Royal Danish Opera; Gorianchikov / From the House of the Dead at La Scala, Milan under Daniel Harding; and Ned in a new production of Treemonisha at the Chatelet, Paris.” “Willard White was awarded the CBE in 1995 and he was knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honors in 2004.” [Scott Joplin (1868-1917), the African American composer and pianist of Ragtime and Classical Music, composed the opera Treemonisha and is featured at AfriClassical.com]
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