Willard White

Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (2019)

Composed in the 1930s by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, this is a mordant satire on capitalism and the inexorable industrialization of a society in which the ultimate crime is not having money ...

D-Day 75: A Tribute to Heroes (2019)

Live from Southsea Common in Portsmouth, Huw Edwards introduces coverage of the National Commemorative Event taking place to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day. ...

From the House of the Dead - La Monnaie / De Munt (2018)

Posthumously premiered in 1930, From the House of the Dead derives from Dostoevsky's autobiographical 1862 novel that drew on his experience as a political prisoner in Siberia. Janáček focuses on Dostoevsky's idea of the "spark of God" in every human bei ...

Berg: Wozzeck (2018)

Based on real events and drawing on Georg Büchner's revolutionary play, Alban Berg's Wozzeck turns a grimly tragic narrative of violence and murder into one of the most powerful and original operas of the 20th century. Berg's uncompromising portrayal of b ...

From the House of the Dead (2017)

Condensing the life stories – memories of prison in Silesia – related by Dostoyevsky in his work The House of the Dead, Leoš Janáček composed an opera filled with burning desire and longing. Contagious savagery, cruelty and brutality are exacerbated ...

Mozart: La clemenza di Tito (2017)

How do we live together in an age of conflict? How do you heal a divided and angry people? In their 2017 production of Mozart's La clemenza di Tito, Peter Sellars and Teodor Currentzis examine these questions through the story of a warrior-emperor who brin ...

Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (2015)

A major work from the remarkable partnership of playwright and poet Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, Mahagonny was first performed in Leipzig in 1930. Its first ever Royal Opera staging, by Associate Director of Opera John Fulljames, is sung in Engl ...

Wagner : Parsifal (2013)

A young man ignorant of everything, including his own name, arrives at the Kingdom of the Holy Grail. Is he the 'pure fool, enlightened by compassion', who, it has been prophesied, will purify the kingdom? ...

Rusalka (2012)

Antonin Dvorak's next to last opera draws its substance from the underwater wonderland of little mermaids, Undines and Melusines: the water nymph Rusalka falls hopelessly in love with a prince and, although she is willing to sacrifice her voice to acquire ...

The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny (2011)

A hard-hitting new production of Kurt Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny by the Catalan collective La Fura dels Baus at the Teatro Real de Madrid. Composed in the 1930s by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, this is a mordant satire on capitalism a ...

Die Walküre (2008)

Simon Rattle conducts the Berliner Philharmoniker in Stepháne Braunschweig's production of Richard Wagner's Die Walküre. A Festival d'Aix-en-Provence 2007 production, in coproduction with Osterfestspiele Salzburg. Directed for HDTV and video by Don Kent. ...

Wagner Die Walküre (2007)

The Little Prince (2004)

In an opera version of the famous literature classic, during World War I, an airplane pilot crashes his plane in the Sahara Desert, where he has a very unusual near-death experience. ...

John Adams: El Niño (2000)

Headlined by Dawn Upshaw, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson and Willard White and orchestrated by the Berlin German Symphony Orchestra, this Nativity oratorio from composer John Adams tells the magical story of the birth of Christ. Conducted by renowned maestro Kent ...

The Damnation of Faust (1999)

The three main soloists have voices on a scale that can compete with these flashy production values – White and Kasarova, in particular, sing at a level of intensity that would swamp anything less; the climactic seduction trio has rarely been sung so wel ...

Berlioz La Damnation de Faust (1999)

While excerpts of the score are popular today, like the Hungarian March in the first part or Marguerite's romanza "D'amour l'ardente flamme" in the fourth part, the complete "légende dramatique," as the composer called it, is rarely performed. But you mus ...

Porgy and Bess (1993)

The story of a disabled beggar in Charleston,S.C. who falls in love with a prostitute, this is the first filmed version of Gershwin's opera which uses Gershwin's own orchestrations and practically all of the music, with only one major cut. ...

Othello (1990)

Noble Moroccan Othello finds his life with beautiful, fiercely loyal Desdemona thrown tragically out of balance when secretly jealous, scheming confidante Iago begins an insidious campaign of lies and treachery. ...

Amadeus (1984)

Disciplined Italian composer Antonio Salieri becomes consumed by jealousy and resentment towards the hedonistic and remarkably talented young Salzburger composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. ...

The Love of Three Oranges (1982)

The prince is suffering from severe depression, and only laughter can save him. ...

Amahl and the Night Visitors (1978)

One night in Judea, a disabled shepherd boy-turned-beggar and his mother are visited by three strangers. They are the Three Kings, and they are on their way to Bethlehem to visit the Christ Child, who has just been born. ...