BIOGRAPHY
Hailed as "a booming, well-crafted bass"
(Opera News) whose "dark, supple bass [fuses] seductive and threatening into his irresistible weapon," (San Diego Story) 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, & was named a finalist in the American Prize in Voice (2025).
Robert's 2025-26 season concludes with Opera Neo’s productions of Fausto (Louise Bertin - U.S. Premiere) as
Mefistofele and Il Turco in Italia as Don Geronio. For the 2026-27 Season, Robert will return to Hawai’i Opera Theatre to perform in The Shining as Dick Hallorann and Tosca as Angelotti/Sciarrone, and will make his house debut with Marigny Opera Ballet in their 2027 production of La damnation de Faust as Méphistophélès.
Performance highlights include Mazzoli/Vavrek’s Lincoln in the Bardo (Mr.Baron), La Bohème (Benoît/Alcindoro) with Chautauqua Opera, La Calisto (Giove), The Rake’s Progress (Nick Shadow) and Carmen (Zuniga) with Opera Memphis, The Riot Grrrl on Mars - Rossini’s L’italiana in Algeri (Taddeo), La Bohème (Colline), An American Dream (Papa), Carmen (Zuniga), Gianni Schicchi (Betto di Signa), Gasser/Harrison's The Secret Garden (Ben Weatherstaff), and Madama Butterfly (Bonze/Prince Yamadori) with Hawai'i Opera Theatre, Madama Butterfly (Bonze) with Opera Grand Rapids, Les Dialogues des Carmélites (2nd Commissioner) with New Orleans Opera Association, Madama Butterfly (Imperial Commissioner) with Lyric Opera of Kansas City, the co-production of Prestini/Shaughnessy’s Sensorium Ex with Washington National Opera/Vision Into Art/Beth Morrison Projects, 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) and Il ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria (Il Tempo) with dell’Arte Opera Ensemble. Robert also participated in the Joyce DiDonato Masterclass at Carnegie Hall.
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
Photo by Jessica Osber
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 described as “truly an operette for our times” (S. Fairbank), and The Enigma of Amigara Fault with Chris Drago Fistonich based off of the short horror story by Junji Ito. Upcoming projects include the opera The Ming & I, originally commissioned by Boston Opera Collaborative for their 2026 Opera Bites Showcase with music by Ben Yee-Paulson, and Thanatography with music by Josíah Garza.​
Robert 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.