ROBERT MELLON Baritone

American baritone Robert Mellon was acclaimed by Opera News for having “excellent comic timing,” and a “domineering baritone, gleaming like polished copper.” In the 2020-21 season he sings the roles of Schaunard in La bohème with San Diego Opera, Malatesta in Don Pasquale with Opera Las Vegas, Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Union Avenue Opera, and Marcello in La bohème and Gubetta in Lucrezia Borgia with Opera de Oviedo. In 2019 he made several company debuts. At Opera de Oviedo he was heard as Simone in Eine Florentinische Tragödie and Tonio in Pagliacci; sang the title role in Gianni Schicchi and Simone in Eine Florentinische Tragödie with Livermore Valley Opera, where the San Francisco Chronicle wrote, “Baritone Robert Mellon was both the musical star of the performance and its dramatic vertex…with a steely vocal edge that never interfered with the beauty and flexibility of his singing.” Mr. Mellon reprised the roles of Papageno in Die Zauberflöte with Opera Maine and Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte with Syracuse Opera. 2018-19 he premiered Dear Erich with New York City Opera and Leporello in Don Giovanni with Syracuse Opera. He also sang Bernardo in West Side Story with Shreveport Opera. Robert has performed leading roles with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, The National Sawdust Festival, the Peoria Symphony, and has been a guest artist with Manhattan School of Music and Rutgers University. Other roles include Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro, the title role in Falstaff, Sam in Trouble in Tahiti, and Macbeth in the U.S. premiere of Ernest Bloch’s Macbeth. Concert work includes the Mozart and Duruflé Requiems, Dvorak’s Te Deum, Stravinsky’s Pulcinella, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, Bach’s Magnificat, and Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death.