José Fardilha started his musical studies with Cristina de Castro and he made his debut in 1984 as Masetto in Don Giovanni at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon, his native town. In the same theater he also performed in: Le Nozze di Figaro (Figaro); La Bohème (Marcello); L’Italiana in Algeri (Taddeo); La Traviata (Germont); La Cenerentola (Dandini and Alidoro); Carmen; Manon Lescaut; Gianni Schicchi; Lucia di Lammermoor; La Fille du Regiment; Candide and Der Schauspieldirektor.

Winning the "Toti dal Monte" Competition, J. Fardilha had the opportunity to perform as Don Giovanni’s Leporello in Italy (Treviso, Rovigo and Trieste) and also at the Opéra du Rhin de Strasbourg; following this he sang Falstaff under the baton of Peter Maag in Treviso; Handel’s Rinaldo staged by Pier Luigi Pizzi in Lisbon; Pergolesi’s Lo Frate ’namorato conducted by Riccardo Muti and staged by Roberto De Simone for his debut at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, where is returned for La Bohème (Schaunard), Les contes d’Hoffmann (Schlemil), La Cenerentola (Dandini) and Il turco in Italia (Poeta).

He is a regular guest at the world’s greatest opera houses and festivals, including: Wiener Staatsoper (L’Elisir d’Amore); Salzburger Festspiele (Don Giovanni); Barbican Center in London (Il Matrimonio Segreto); Opéra de Paris (Il Barbiere di Siviglia and La Bohème); Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin (La Bohème and Otello); Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich (La Cenerentola, Roméo et Juliette and Don Giovanni); Zurich Opernhaus (L’Elisir d’Amore, Le Nozze di Figaro, Turandot, La Cenerentola and Il Barbiere di Siviglia); Teatro alla Scala in Milan (Falstaff, La Bohème, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, La Cenerentola and Il Turco in Italia); Teatro Regio in Turin (Otello, La Rondine, Jerusalem and Don Giovanni); Teatro La Fenice in Venice (Handel’s Semele); Teatro del Maggio Musicale in Florence (Turandot, La Traviata and La Bohème); Arena Sferisterio in Macerata (Il Barbiere di Siviglia); Martina Franca Festival (La Pietra del Paragone); and New Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv (Don Pasquale, La Cenerentola, L’Italiana in Algeri and Don Giovanni).

Mr. Fardilha collaborated with prestigious conductors, such as: Claudio Abbado, Paolo Carignani, Riccardo Chailly, Michel Corboz, Zubin Mehta and Riccardo Muti, to name a few.

He also performed: Lucia di Lammermoor at the Teatro de La Maestranza in Seville; Le Jongleur de Notre Dame (Moine peintre) at the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome; Don Giovanni in Frankfurt, at the Ruhr Triennale in Gelsenkirchen and in Thessaloniki; Le Convenienze ed Inconvenienze Teatrali (Mamma Agata) and Oedipus Rex with the "Giuseppe Verdi" Symphonic Orchestra in Milan. He also enjoys a vast concert activity, interpreting: Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle conducted by Michel Corboz; Beethoven’s Symphony n. 9 with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra conducted by Dimitri Kitaenko; Stravinsky’s Les Noces; Puccini's Messa di Gloria; Orff’s Carmina Burana; and Handel’s Messiah.

His recent engagements include: Don Giovanni in Berlin, Stuttgart, Amsterdam, Genève, Dresden, Athens, Budapest, Edinburgh and New York; Don Pasquale (Malatesta) in Lisbon, Leipzig and at the Glyndebourne Festival; La Bohème in Paris, Genoa and Toulouse; Manon Lescaut (Lescaut) on tour in Italy, Lisbon and Leipzig; Tosca in Toulouse; Il Cappello di Paglia di Firenze in Lisbon; La Cenerentola (Don Magnifico) in Zürich, Lisbon and Leipzig; L’Italiana in Algeri (Taddeo) in Santiago de Chile; Il Barbiere di Siviglia in Madrid, Barcelona, Stuttgart, Berlin (Staatsoper), London and Copenhagen; La damnation de Faust at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin (Deutsche Oper); Il Viaggio a Reims (Trombonok) a Copenhagen; Così fan tutte (Don Alfonso) a Glyndebourne; Gianni Schicchi in Lisbon.

In 2018, he made his debut at the Bolshoi Theatre as Don Profondo (Il Viaggio a Reims), then he sang the role of Barone di Trombonok.