bass William Guanbo SU. Photo: Linzi Pan.

Bio

William Guanbo Su is heralded by the New York Times for “musical taste, honest execution of Handelian ornaments and bel canto filigree, and a solid voice,” In the 2025-26 season, he returns to the Metropolitan Opera as Masetto in Don Giovanni and Santa Fe Opera as Garibaldo in Rodelinda. He also makes debuts with Los Angeles Opera as Colline in La bohème, Irish National Opera as Oroveso in Norma, and English Concert as the title role of Handel’s Hercules on a tour of Europe and the United States. Last season he made role and company debuts as Publio in La clemenza di Tito at Staatsoper Hamburg, Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor with Nashville Opera, and as Somnus and Cadmus in Semele with Atlanta Opera. He joined Dallas Opera for the first time as Colline in La bohème and returned to the Metropolitan Opera to reprise the Speaker in the company’s beloved English presentation of The Magic Flute and the Jailer in Tosca and for its production of La bohème. He sang Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 at the Cathedral of S. John the Divine and the Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra and Martinů’s The Epic of Gilgamesh and was also presented in recital by the Sag Harbor Song Festival.

His other recent performances include Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Seattle Opera, Blitch in Susannah with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia and Angelotti in Tosca with Austin Opera, Colline in La bohème with Boston Lyric Opera and Utah Opera, Alidoro in La Cenerentola with Opera Maine, and Bonze in Madama Butterfly in a return to Houston Grand Opera and at the Grand Tetons Music Festival. At the Aspen Music Festival, he sang his first performances of Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia, and Garibaldo in Rodelinda.

He made his Carnegie Hall debut with the Cecilia Chorus of New York singing Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and returned to the stage a year later for Handel’s Messiah with the same organization. He joined the American Symphony Orchestra as Simon in Handel’s Judas Maccabeus.

He is a former member of the prestigious Studio of the Houston Grand Opera at which he sang Zuniga in Carmen, the First Officer in Dialogues des Carmélites, Second Armed Man in Die Zauberflöte—while also being responsible for Sarastro, Mandarin in Turandot—while also being responsible for Timur, and the Duke of Verona in Roméo et Juliette. He also sang the Usher in Rigoletto, but his scheduled performances of Sparafucile were cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic. While a participant in the Académie Vocal Residence at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, he sang the Demon in Pergolesi’s Li prodigi della divina grazia nella conversione e more di San Guglielmo Duca di Aquitaina with Les Talens Lyriques.

As an ambassador for Opera for Peace, he sang Verdi’s “O tu Palermo” from I vespri siciliani for that organization’s digital concert celebrating World Opera Day 2020. He is a former Gerdine Young Artist of the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, at which he sang Count Ceprano in Rigoletto and covered Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro. He joined Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Lyric Unlimited for its production of Perla’s An American Dream. While at The Juilliard School, he sang the Commendatore in Don Giovanni and Pluton in Hippolyte et Aricie.

Mr. Su was a Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition Grand Finals winner and won second prize in the Eleanor McCollum Competition at Houston Grand Opera. He won first prize in the Liederkranz Foundation’s Song/Lieder Competition in 2017 and, in 2018, received third prize in the Gerda Lissner Opera Competition. He received his Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School and his Bachelor of Music Degree from the Manhattan School of Music. He completed further studies at the Franz Schubert Institute in Austria.

Raves

“William Guanbo Su was riveting as the lascivious evangelist Olin Blitch, demonic in the show Revival Scene, but if anything, more impressive in his subsequent confrontation with Susannah, where, before he rapes her, Blitch tells her": ‘I’m a lonely man.’ At that moment, Su brought ambiguity and shading to his portrayal: the preacher remained a low life, but one whose character was rooted in deep-seated vulnerability.”
— Opera News