Ben Robinson
There is a fascinating twist to the story of how Ben discovered opera. The story begins in elementary school, on the floor of the library, at a performance of The Marriage of Figaro.
Young Ben was enchanted by everything he saw: the singing, the music, and the costumes, and he was instantly hooked on the opera world. The twist is that one of the singers in that performance would become his voice teacher 20 years later! It seemed liked opera was Ben’s destiny.
Today, in addition to serving as Opera Steamboat’s Interim Artistic Director, Ben serves as the Artistic Director of Raylynmor Opera (New Hampshire) and Opera Ithaca (New York), as well as the Managing Director of Lyric Fest, Philadelphia’s critically acclaimed art song concert series. His work as a stage and film director is highlighted by new productions for which he also wrote new English libretti: Madame Butterfly, Macbeth, Hansel and Gretel, The Barber of Seville, Die Fledermaus, Bastien and Bastienne, The Impresario, La Cenerentola, and Pauline Viardot’s Cendrillon.
Recent projects include a fashion-world inspired production of La Cenerentola for Salt Marsh Opera and Raylynmor Opera, Le nozze di Figaro with Opera Ithaca, and the world premiere of Sally Lamb McCune’s We Wear the Sea Like a Coat with Ithaca College. His “moving, visually daring” (Opera News) film production of Hansel and Gretel featured his English translation which was cited for how its “amusing new lines so perfectly match the music that you can’t imagine how the original German must have fit.”
Ben’s film production of Bastien and Bastienne, with his original English libretto setting the action in the social media-obsessed present, was released in March 2021 and subsequently streamed at the Arlington International Film Festival. He directed Gianni Schicchi for Opera Ithaca, which OPERA magazine heralded as the “deftest use… of Covid-era technology as part of modern operatic reality.” He was announced as a 2021 recipient of the Ewing Arts Award, which celebrates the diversity and excellence of artists in the Monadnock region of New Hampshire.
Recent and upcoming projects include directing productions of Nabucco for the inaugural Opera Ithaca Festival, a soap-opera inspired Così fan tutte with Cedar Rapids Opera, The Impresario and The Pirates of Penzance for Ithaca College, Hänsel und Gretel with Temple University, and Orpheus in the Underworld with Raylynmor Opera.
