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 (Opera Division), the Martorella Scholarship in Classical Voice (HI Chapter), the Dorothy Lincoln Smith Voice Competition (HI Chapter), and the Mozart International Competition Vienna.
Robert's 2024-2025 season continues as a Handorf Company Artist with Opera Memphis where he will be featured in their remount of La Calisto as Giove during the Opera America Conference. Feng will also join Hawai’i Opera Theatre for their production of Carmen as Zuniga, and Chautauqua Opera Company as an Apprentice Artist performing the roles of Benoît/Alcindoro in La Bohème, Mr.Baron/Ensemble in Missy Mazzoli’s Lincoln in the Bardo and the Bouncer in Jeremy Gill’s Sitcom. Most recently, Robert participated in the Joyce DiDonato Masterclass at Carnegie Hall.
Performance highlights include The Rake’s Progress (Nick Shadow) and Carmen (Zuniga) with Opera Memphis, La Bohème (Colline), An American Dream (Papa), 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 Mozart Requiem (Bass Soloist) with Mid America Productions, Memphis Symphony Orchestra, and the Glens Falls Symphony respectively, The Garden of Alice (Mad Hatter & Others) with City Lyric Opera, Roméo et Juliette (Frère Laurent), Fiddler on the Roof (Constable/Russian Solo), 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.
Not limited to performing standard repertoire, Feng remains active in premiering and performing works by living composers. These include the aforementioned Harmony and Sensorium Ex, Yunfei Li’s Chew On This (Shou Zi Chew) with Lyric Opera of Kansas City/No Divide KC, Felix Jarrar's You Do Not Recognize the Bodies in the Water (Body/Interviewer) at OPERA America, and Tony Small’s Qadar (Detective/Body Guard) with the Smithsonian Museum.
Robert placed second in the NY Classical Music Society International Voice Competition, third in the Beethoven Club of Memphis Savell Competition, third in the Lyra Mozart International Voice Competition, and third in the Opera for Earth Vocal Competition. Robert is also a recipient of the MI Opera Role Award, Seagle Festival Guild Scholarship, the George Woodhead Prize in Voice, and the Peabody Career Development Award. Robert holds degrees from Peabody Conservatory and Manhattan School of Music. He is a proud alumnus of the Seagle Festival where he was an apprentice artist in 2021 and 2023, and the Hawai'i Opera Theatre Young Artist Program where was a resident artist between 2022-2024.
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Leah Gafni Photography
Photo by Jessica Osber
As a librettist, Feng 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.”
Robert’s political satire micro-opera Chew On This premiered in June 2024, (with composer Yunfei Li) commissioned by Lyric Opera of Kansas City and No Divide KC for their Come As You Are (CAYA) Festival, described as “truly an operette for our times” (S. Fairbank). This opera is part of a trilogy of one-acts about Asians in America titled Silk Roads.​
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Feng’s first opera (with composer Nick Bentz) Having Guests for Dinner is a 1-act horror/comedy. It premiered virtually with New Opera West in 2020 and has since been performed live with them as well as Hartford Opera Theater and Hillman Opera at SUNY Fredonia in 2024 where a 90 min version was commissioned by Kor Productions. It will be performed at Central Washington University in October 2024 for their chamber opera showcase. Feng and Bentz’s second opera Salmo, a grand space opera in prologue and four acts, will be workshopped by Brown University for their 2026/27 Academic Year.
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Feng has also collaborated with prolific NYC based composer Felix Jarrar on the art song When They Killed Us, Did You Say They Killed Americans? about the 2021 Atlanta Spa Shootings and rise in anti-Asian hate crimes during the Covid Pandemic, and the supernatural horror opera You Do Not Recognize the Bodies in the Water, which was workshopped at OPERA America in 2022.
Upcoming projects include the Sci-Fi operetta Pathfinder, to be set to music by Jane Kozhevnikova respectively, Annihilation: A nuclear oratorio for the end of days to be set to music by Scott Wheeler, and The Ming and I, commissioned by Boston Opera Collective for their 2026 Opera Bites Showcase to be set to music by Ben Yee-Paulson.
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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.