Robert Ellsworth Feng

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 Grand Prize Winner of the Burbank Philharmonic Hennings-Fischer Young Artist Competition, and placed first in the Martorella Scholarship in Classical Voice (HI Chapter), the Dorothy Lincoln Smith Voice Competition (HI Chapter), and the Mozart International Competition Vienna, and placed second in 2025 American Prize in Voice - Schorr Memorial Award.

Performance highlights include the U.S. premiere of Louise Bertin’s Fausto (Mefistofele) and Il Turco in Italia (Don Geronio) with Opera Neo, The Rake’s Progress (Nick Shadow) and Carmen (Zuniga) with Opera Memphis, L’italiana in Algeri (Taddeo), La Bohème (Colline), An American Dream (Papa), and Madama Butterfly (Bonze/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, and Roméo et Juliette (Fr. Laurent), and the world premiere of Carl/Banks’ Harmony (Rev.Twichell) with Seagle Festival.

As a librettist, Feng creates impactful and entertaining works ranging from horror comedies to sci-fi thrillers. Robert’s political satire micro-opera Chew On This premiered in June 2024 with composer Yunfei Li, commissioned for Lyric Opera of Kansas City and No Divide KC’s CAYA Festival, and was described as “truly an operette for our times” (S. Fairbank).

Feng’s first opera Having Guests for Dinner is an award winning 1-act horror/comedy with music by Nick Bentz. Premiered by New Opera West and produced by Kor Productions, this opera has been performed from coast to coast with Hartford Opera Theater, Hillman Opera at SUNY Fredonia, Central Washington University, One Ounce Opera and more. It was praised by Broadway World Austin as a “deliciously dark comedy, packed with clever twists, razor-sharp humour, and an irresistibly absurd premise.” Their second opera Salmo, a grand space drama, was workshopped at Brown University for their 2026/27 Academic Year with the Ekmeles Ensemble, and will see an orchestral workshop in Spring 2027. Feng has also collaborated with Felix Jarrar on the supernatural horror opera You Do Not Recognize the Bodies in the Water, workshopped in 2022 at OPERA America, and with Josíah Garza on Ye Ol’Factory - a pastiche of new works with script and micro-opera The Wake: A Fishous Cycle written by Feng, commissioned by Wieldflower Arts

Robert holds degrees from Peabody Conservatory and Manhattan School of Music. Feng is a proud alumnus of the Seagle Festival, Hawai’i Opera Theatre’s Young Artist Program, Opera Memphis’ Handorf Company Artist Program, Lyric Opera of KC and No Divide KC’s CAYA Festival Fellowship, Alliance for New Music-Theatre, Performing Arts Laboratory’s inaugural composer-librettist lab, and Really Spicy Opera’s Aria Institute for Composers & Librettists: Sci-Fi Edition, and Librettist Workshop.