In May 1971, White made his debut as the runaway slave Jim in the Juilliard American Opera production of
Hall Overton's opera
Huckleberry Finn. He next appeared with
New York City Opera in 1974 as Colline in
La bohème. In 1976, he made his London opera debut with
English National Opera as Seneca in
Monteverdi's ''
L'incoronazione di Poppea, having starred with Leona Mitchell that year in the first truly complete recording of Porgy and Bess''. He has since sung at the
Metropolitan Opera,
Royal Opera House,
Opéra Bastille, the opera houses of
San Francisco,
Los Angeles, and the major European cities as well as the Festivals at
Glyndebourne,
Aix-en-Provence,
Verbier, and
Salzburg. In addition to covering a wide range of the bass-baritone roles in the standard repertoire by
Mozart,
Handel,
Rossini,
Verdi,
Puccini and
Wagner, White has also explored less traditional territory by appearing as Bluebeard in
Bartók's ''
Bluebeard's Castle'', Golaud in
Debussy's
Pelléas and Mélisande, Tchélio in
Prokofiev's
The Love for Three Oranges, the title role in
Messiaen's ''
Saint François d'Assise'', Nekrotzar in
Ligeti's
Le Grand Macabre, Claggart in
Britten's
Billy Budd,
John Adams'
El Niño, Nick Shadow in
Stravinsky's ''
The Rake's Progress'', Creon in Stravinsky's
Oedipus Rex, the title role in
Mussorgsky's
Boris Godunov and Ivan in
Khovanshchina. In 2005 he sang
Michael Tippett's
A Child of our Time at the
First Night of the Proms. His voice was heard as one of the operatic soloists in the
Academy Award-winning motion picture
Amadeus. Among his most memorable roles are Mephistopheles in
Berlioz's
The Damnation of Faust and Porgy in
Porgy and Bess. He has starred in non-singing roles, such as a
Royal Shakespeare Company production of
Othello (1989), with
Ian McKellen as
Iago and
Imogen Stubbs as
Desdemona. He sang Porgy in the Glyndebourne production (1993) of the opera
Porgy and Bess. Both productions were directed by
Trevor Nunn and both were videotaped for television. White appeared with
Cantamus Girls Choir in Harrogate in 2004. He has sung the role of
Vodnik in
Antonín Dvořák's opera
Rusalka several times, including in a
Stefan Herheim production in 2012 at
La Monnaie in Brussels and in 2004 at the Metropolitan Opera, New York. On 5 June 2019 at
Portsmouth, during the ceremony commemorating the 75th anniversary of the
Normandy landings, White interpreted in French the "
Chant des Partisans", the most popular song of the
Free French and
French Resistance during World War II, in front of veterans and heads of state including
Queen Elizabeth II,
Donald Trump and
Emmanuel Macron. In August 2020, White caused some controversy when he refused to sing
Oley Speaks' setting of
Rudyard Kipling's poem "
Mandalay", as a planned part of the UK's
VJ commemorations, because it "made him feel uncomfortable". On 22 May 2021 at the age of 74, he sang the role of Seneca in the premiere of the
Vienna State Opera production of
Claudio Monteverdi's ''
L'incoronazione di Poppea''. In 2022 White sang the role of Count Monterone in
Opera North's production of
Rigoletto, directed by
Femi Elufowoju jr. ==Awards and personal life==