BIOGRAPHY
Hailed as "a booming, well-crafted bass"
(Opera News) with a “strong presence,” (S.Fairbank) Chinese-American singer and librettist Robert Ellsworth Feng is a first place winner of the Burbank Philharmonic Hennings-Fischer Young Artist Competition, the Martorella Scholarship in Classical Voice (HI Chapter), the Dorothy Lincoln Smith Voice Competition (HI Chapter), and the Mozart International Competition Vienna, and was named a finalist in the American Prize in Voice (2025).
Photo by Jessica Osber
Robert's 2025 season continues as an Apprentice Artist with Chautauqua Opera Company performing the roles of Benoît/Alcindoro in La Bohème, Mr.Baron/Ensemble in Missy Mazzoli & Royce Vavrek’s Lincoln in the Bardo and the Bouncer in Luke Styles & Alan McKendrick’s Sitcom. Most recently, Robert participated in the Joyce DiDonato Masterclass at Carnegie Hall.
Performance highlights include La Calisto (Giove), The Rake’s Progress (Nick Shadow) and Carmen (Zuniga) with Opera Memphis, La Bohème (Colline), An American Dream (Papa), Carmen (Zuniga), Gianni Schicchi (Betto di Signa), Gasser/Harrison's The Secret Garden (Ben Weatherstaff), The Pirates of Penzance (Pirate King), Dichterliebe (Soloist), and Madama Butterfly (Bonze/Prince Yamadori) with Hawai'i Opera Theatre, the co-production of Prestini/Shaughnessy’s Sensorium Ex with Washington National Opera/Vision Into Art/Beth Morrison Projects, Robert le Diable (Bertram) with St.Johns in the Village, The Garden of Alice (Mad Hatter & Others) with City Lyric Opera, Roméo et Juliette (Frère Laurent), and the world premiere of Carl/Banks’ Harmony (Rev.Twichell) with Seagle Festival, Juana (Padre Antonio), Il ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria (Il Tempo), and Anna Bolena (Rochefort) with dell’Arte Opera Ensemble, and Les pêcheurs de perles (Nourabad) and Don Giovanni (Il Commendatore) with /Kor/ Productions.
Robert placed second in the NY Classical Music Society International Voice Competition, third in the Beethoven Club of Memphis Savell Competition, and third in the Lyra Mozart International Voice Competition. Robert holds degrees from Peabody Conservatory and Manhattan School of Music. He is a proud alumnus of the Seagle Festival (2021/2023), the Hawai'i Opera Theatre Young Artist Program (2022-2024), and Opera Memphis’s Handorf Company Artist Program (2024-2025).
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Leah Gafni Photography
As a librettist, Robert creates impactful and entertaining works that have been described as “relatable and fresh.” His comedies are noted for being “quick-witted and layered”, and his horror as “hauntingly engaging.” Recently, Feng was a speaker at the 2025 OPERA America Conference in the panel “In Search of the Perfect Libretto.”
Feng’s first opera Having Guests for Dinner is a 1-act horror/comedy with music by Nick Bentz. It premiered virtually with New Opera West in 2020 and has since been produced at Hartford Opera Theater, Central Washington University, and Hillman Opera at SUNY Fredonia. The full length version was commissioned and co-produced by Chicago based company Kor Productions. Feng and Bentz’s second opera Salmo, a grand space opera in four acts, will be workshopped by Brown University for their 2026/27 Academic Year.
Other operatic works include the supernatural horror opera You Do Not Recognize the Bodies in the Water workshopped at OPERA America in 2022 with music by Felix Jarrar, and the political satire Chew On This with music by Yunfei Li commissioned by Lyric Opera of Kansas City and No Divide KC for their Come As You Are (CAYA) Festival. Chew On This was described as “truly an operette for our times” (S. Fairbank). Upcoming projects include the Sci-Fi operetta Pathfinder with music by Jane Kozhevnikova, Annihilation: A nuclear oratorio for the end of days with music by Scott Wheeler, The Ming and I, commissioned by Boston Opera Collective for their 2026 Opera Bites Showcase with music by Ben Yee-Paulson, The Enigma of Amigara Fault with Chris Drago Fistonich based off of the short horror story by Junji Ito, and the Sci-Fi Thriller There's Something Wrong with Silvia Price with Jamey Guzman.
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Robert holds degrees from Peabody Conservatory and Manhattan School of Music and is a recipient of the Peabody Career Development Award. Feng was a Librettist Fellow for Lyric Opera of KC and No Divide KC’s CAYA Festival Fellowship, and is an alum of Really Spicy Opera’s Aria Institute for Composers & Librettists: Sci-Fi Edition, and Librettist Workshop. This June, Robert joins the Alliance for New Music-Theatre’s Composer-Librettist Studio in Washington, D.C.