Reviews:
"As the deformed clown Tonio, Robert Mellon unfurled a large, voluminous baritone. Singing his Prologue from the audience, Mellon’s warm timbre matched Leoncavallo’s rhapsodic burst of melody. In his scene with Brown, he begged for Nedda’s love in suave tones before turning to fury and vowing vengeance at her rejection. In a role often played as a stock villain, Mellon offered a fully realized, complex portrayal."
Florida Grand Opera
Pagliacci 2024
"These performances of Pagliacci marked the debut at Florida Grand Opera of.....baritone Robert Mellon, who was a great success in his role of Tonio, with impeccable acting and a very solid vocal performance."
Florida Grand Opera
Pagliacci 2024
"The great seducer is accompanied in his exploits by his servant, Leporello. This is a wonderful comic role and it is sung by the soon to be great Robert Mellon who did such fine work as Figaro (Il Barbiere di Siviglia) and Falstaff (Falstaff) in recent seasons with Union Avenue Opera. Mellon has a voice that easily fills the hall. He's a skilled actor and has a lively, physical comic gift that makes Leporello sparkle. He triumphs in the famous "catalogue" aria, where he enumerates the many feminine conquests of his master."
Winter Opera Saint Louis
Don Giovanni 2023
"As Leporello, Mellon was a master comedian throughout."
Winter Opera Saint Louis
Don Giovanni 2023
"At the vertex of the drama was baritone Robert Mellon's rich-hued and expressively complex portrait of George. The first aria Floyd gives him reflects his unattainable dream of being free of that obligation, and Mellon's magnificent delivery created a lasting moral framework for the entire piece."
Livermore Valley Opera
Of Mice and Men 2023
"Robert Mellon offers a profound portrayal of George, singing with a dark, authoritative, and soulful baritone who bears the weight of responsibility. He bemoans that, "There's gotta be more," while he hopes and plans that he and Lennie can someday buy a little farm. His wisful aria, "I, me, and, mine," also reveals his contradictory yearning to stand on his own rather suffer his burden."
Livermore Valley Opera
Of Mice and Men 2023
"Robert Mellon continued his string of exemplary performances with Opera Maine as Dandini, the fanciful valet to Prince Ramiro...Mellon's valet was all too delighted to play with each and every character, generating an exuberance and humor that energized the rest of the cast. Mellon's quick wit was matched by his beautiful, blooming baritone that filled the house with ease."
Opera Maine
Cenerentola 2023
"It was a treat to have Opera Maine favorite, Robert Mellon, back in town and owning every inch of Dandini. With actorly flair, Mellon relished his role as, "Prince for a Day," taking to royalty as the proverbial duck to water. The comic business devised for his duet with Don Magnifico had the house in stitches."
Opera Maine
Cenerentola 2023
"...and Robert Mellon as Escamillo. Mellon’s voice rang through the Kauffman Center with ease..."
Lyric Opera Kansas City
Carmen 2022
"Robert Mellon...prevailed among the artists of the company of comedians...with that special vocality in the lyrical lines, to portray the widest range of sentiment, from the darkest passions they live, between reality and fiction."
Opera de Oviedo
Pagliacci 2019
"Last season Robert Mellon was a brilliant Figaro in Union Avenue's Il barbiere di Siviglia. Now he is the perfect Falstaff. The additional apparent avoirdupois has not in the least weighed down his splendid baritone voice, which rises to truly fill the hall. And what a sense of comedy! (Such a smile! [Such teeth!]) Towards the end, after Falstaff has been mocked and abused and dunked in the muddy Thames, we see him slumped alone, exhausted, quiet--sagging like a fat, defeated lump of despair. But then Mellon's glorious voice bursts out brimming with life and vigor. It's astonishing!"
Union Avenue Opera
Falstaff 2022
"Union Avenue has...a cast...headed by baritone Robert Mellon in the title role. His Falstaff roars, boasts, preens, and schemes—all in a big, resonant voice that reaches every corner of the theatre. His Act I “honor” monologue...is delivered with an authority and comic force that makes it a genuine showstopper. He even manages, in the less boisterous third act, to let us see a bit of the nobility buried under the character’s folly."
Union Avenue Opera
Falstaff 2022
"Robert Mellon, who excelled in the title role in last year’s UAO production of “The Barber of Seville,” delivers an ingratiating performance, both vocally and acting, in the title role. His Falstaff is hearty in his pursuit of wine, women and song and precise in his comedy, especially in scenes where Falstaff receives his comeuppance."
Union Avenue Opera
Falstaff 2022
"Led by returning baritone Robert Mellon...as Falstaff. Powering through the first act with unchallenged rigor, Mellon is mesmerizing. The second act finds him more subdued as he brings the knight’s more cunning traits to the surface of his performance. For the final act, the gloves come off as Mellon treads into over-the-top territory as Falstaff realizes he’s been humiliated."
Union Avenue Opera
Falstaff 2022
"Physical comedy is as important as singing in Robert Mellon’s splendid portrayal of Falstaff."
Union Avenue Opera
Falstaff 2022
"Mellon triumphs, and he’s supported by an enormously talented cast."
Union Avenue Opera
Falstaff 2022
"While the staging served to refocus attention on what Othello was experiencing, the character of Iago was not in any way diminished. In fact, he seemed a bigger, more insidious force of cruelty, especially in the shape of Robert Mellon, whose rich, resonant deceptively comforting voice embraced the audience at the same time that Iago perpetrated his cruelty."
In Series Opera
Otello 2022
"...The Barber of Seville, featuring a terrific performance by Robert Mellon in the title role in his Union Avenue debut. Mellon matched his considerable singing prowess with an engaging comic performance, which accentuated both the music and the comedy in the two-act opera buffa, which has long stood the test of time."
Union Avenue Opera
Il barbiere di Siviglia 2021
"Founder and Artistic Director Scott Schoonover has a long habit of finding remarkable voices for his productions, but he struck pure gold in Robert Mellon, who sings Figaro. I was impressed with Mellon's vocal and comic gifts in a supporting role at Opera Theatre of St. Louis a few years ago. But here, as Figaro, he has the opportunity to let those gifts flourish.
Now a circus tent, with its vast overhead space, simply dares a singer to "fill the hall", but Mellon easily does just that. His rich and powerful baritone is equal to all challenges. But he also has immense skills as an actor. Such utter investment, such quick lively energy, such imagination! His every moment is full of invention. With flashing eyes and a roguish moustache he makes it all seem so natural. A glorious, lovely self-confidence pervades his performance."
Union Avenue Opera
Il barbiere di Siviglia 2021
"Baritone Robert Mellon, in his first appearance with the company, was both the musical star of the performance and its dramatic vertex. As the merchant Simone, he delivered the role in robust, dark-hued tones that consistently rang out at the forefront of the musical texture. He made the character at once pitiable and profoundly dangerous, with a steely vocal edge that never interfered with the beauty and flexibility of his singing."
Livermore Valley Opera
Eine Florentinische Tragödie (Zemlinsky) 2020
“Robert Mellon, as Papageno....His “Ein Mädchen” was colorful, vibrant and confident, while in “Papagena! Weibchen, Täubchen” his mahogany baritone was alternately ardent and antic.”
Opera Maine
Die Zauberflöte 2019
Opera News Nov. 2019
"The four lovers are manipulated by Don Alfonso, who seems to want only to prove his theory that all women are untrustworthy. The character is tailor-made for Mellon, who eschews the villainous stereotypes often associated with the role in favor of creating a robust prankster who delights in mischief. Mellon is funny as he weds his burly bass to physical comedy enhanced by extravagant facial expressions."
Syracuse Opera
Cosi fan tutte 2019
"Robert Mellon, as Leporello, is a crowd favorite for his resonant voice and his physical humor.”
Syracuse Opera
Don Giovanni 2019
"Robert Mellon’s excellent comic timing made Figaro a masterful mischief-maker. His flexible baritone suited this lighthearted interpretation."
Opera Maine
Le nozze di Figaro 2018
"Where to begin? Probably with Figaro himself, sung by bass-baritone Robert Mellon. If he were not a world-class singer, he could make a career as a stand-up comic. His facial expressions as he tries desperately to explain events in the countess’ chamber are priceless, like his antics with Marcellina...He is perfectly cast."
Opera Maine
Le nozze di Figaro 2018
"Robert Mellon brought a good sense of comic timing to the title role, but also used his solo turns – his angry, scheming cavatina, “Se vuol ballare,” his comic set piece, “Non più andrai,” and his momentarily heartbroken “Aprite un po quegli occhi” – to make Figaro a more three-dimensional character."
Opera Maine
Le nozze di Figaro 2018
"But it is Robert Mellon as Papageno, Tamino's sidekick, who steals the show with his comedic timing and strong voice."
Delaware Valley Opera
The Magic Flute 2017
The Sullivan County Democrat
"Robert Mellon displayed a domineering baritone, gleaming like polished copper, best employed as the Priest, whose delivery of the cryptic "Before the Law" parable was furiously barked and howled against Glass's grotesque glories."
Opera Theatre of Saint Louis
The Trial (Glass) 2017
Opera News - August 2017 Issue
"Mellon presents with stunning finality the absurdity of K.'s situation as the Priest in the opera's climactic cathedral scene."
Opera Theatre of Saint Louis
The Trial (Glass) 2017
"Robert Mellon also shines as the priest who sings the opera’s only aria, a rendition of Kafka’s parable 'Before the Law.'"
Opera Theatre of Saint Louis
The Trial (Glass) 2017
"The performers’ realization of Mendonça’s difficult music, under the leadership of Etienne Siebens, was beyond reproach. Both singers coped heroically with the spiky vocal lines. Robert Mellon’s dark, rounded baritone provided an element of sensual pleasure...."
The National Sawdust
The House Taken Over (Mendonça) 2016
"Mellon, with considerable experience performing new music, exhibited a robust, rich baritone, and was facially expressive..."
The National Sawdust
The House Taken Over 2016
"The brutality of his baritone that reverberated forcefully in this little space lent his Don Alfonso an air of the embittered older man who has a bone to pick not only with the opposite sex but also with the young and naive. He embodied Don Alfonso’s foibles with a masculine wrath and rage, almost like an Old Testament God pulling the strings of his latest human subjects. Mellon's Don Alfonso was the charismatic glue of the evening. Anytime he was on stage, he kept the pace of the story humming right along, never compromising the fun even of the recitatives, with his fully articulated Italian pronunciation. He was like an old pro up there."
Opera Cooperative
Cosi Fan Tutte 2015
"Robert Mellon...sang the title role with a dark baritone, full and fresh and quick with dramatic fire."
Manhattan School of Music
Macbeth (Ernest Bloch) 2014
"As Macbeth, a long and demanding role, the baritone Robert Mellon, combined a husky voice with dramatic subtlety."
Manhattan School of Music
Macbeth (Ernest Bloch) 2014
"As Macbeth, baritone Robert Mellon warmed to a large, shapely tone, filling the hall with often excruciating beauty."
Manhattan School of Music
Macbeth (Ernest Bloch) 2014
"Baritone Robert Mellon, a member of PORTopera's Young Artists, was a standout as Marullo, proving once again that no role is too small for a performer who can seize the moment."
Opera Maine
Rigoletto 2014
"Robert Mellon made a winning Figaro, with a sonorous voice and an affable, good natured openness. Figaro's attack of jealousy in act iv read more plausibly than it often does because Mellon seemed to suffer from sudden self-doubt, rather than misplaced bitterness."
Manhattan School of Music
Le Nozze di Figaro 2010
"The appealing baritone Robert Mellon, sang with colorful flair and myriad shadings, imbuing the somber texts with poignancy and dramatic vigor in equal measure."
Manhattan School of Music
Songs and Dances of Death 2011
Photo credit: sfsphotography