Victor Ryan Robertson, COYOTE (he/him)
Victor Ryan Robertson is an American musical artist distinguished by the compass and color of his tenor voice; he navigates genres comprising classical, contemporary, pop, and Broadway to deliver inspiring and thrilling performances on both opera and theatrical stages.
His discography includes the soundtrack of the Netflix original film “Rustin”, music by Branford Marsalis, Verdi’s La traviata, as Alfredo with Victory Hall Opera, Carly Simon’s Romulus Hunt with Nashville Opera on the Lexicon Classics label, and Anthony Davis’ X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X as Elijah/Street, recorded for commercial release by Boston Modern Orchestra Projects and nominated for a 2023 GRAMMY® Award. Victor made his Metropolitan Opera début as Raoul in their new production of The Merry Widow, and in the same year, he made his Broadway début as Piangi in The Phantom of the Opera. Last season he returned to the MET as Elijah and Street in Anthony Davis’ groundbreaking and influential opera X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X a role he previously performed for Detroit Opera and Opera Omaha. This season, he joins Seattle Opera as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Fort Worth Opera as Ramiro in La Cenerentola, and the Trickster God in Anthony Davis’ Amistad for Connecticut Lyric Opera. He will also be heard in recitals for Seattle Opera, the University of Michigan, and Sun Valley Opera and Broadway.
Recent successes have also included Sportin’ Life in Porgy and Bess for a co-production between Opera Carolina and North Carolina Opera, the Governor/Vanderdendur/ Baron/Ragotski in Candide and Delbert Grady/Stuart Ullman in Paul Moravec and Mark Campbell’s The Shining for The Atlanta Opera, and the role of Raymond Santana in Anthony Davis’s The Central Park Five at Portland Opera. He also played the tenor (Tony) in Terrence McNally’s Master Class with Arizona Theatre Company. Recent concert appearances include the Soundflight 3 concert with Victory Hall Opera; Men of Broadway and Broadway Under the Stars concerts with Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra; and Gershwin and Friends with Ipswich River Community Chorus in North Reading, MA
His newest project, Gullah Meditations, a collaboration with pianist, composer and Georgia native Adrianne Duncan, premiered at St. Helena, SC's historic Penn Center supported by the Mellon Foundation. While performing at the 2016 Spoleto Festival, Victor was given an out-of-print edition of sheet music of little-known 19th-century Gullah Geechee spirituals from the islands off the coast of his home state of South Carolina. Along with Duncan, he set the a cappella melodies to music that reflected their backgrounds in opera, jazz and classical music. This contemporary take on spirituals from the rich Gullah Geechee culture will help preserve and bring forward this profoundly moving music to a new and wider audience. Gullah Meditations will return this fall to the Penn Center Heritage Festival and will also
be recorded for commercial release in 2025.
Victor has sung his signature role, Count Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia, at Minnesota Opera, Detroit Opera, Manitoba Opera, Portland Opera, Arizona Opera, Opera Carolina, Sarasota Opera, Coeur D’Alene Opera, Toledo Opera, and with Santa Cruz Symphony. Previous engagements have also included Tonio in La fille du régiment with Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Ramiro in La Cenerentola and the title role in Roméo et Juliette at Spoleto Festival, Roméo in Roméo et Juliette at Arizona Opera and The Atlanta Opera, Fenton in Falstaff at Cleveland Lyric Opera, Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore at Kentucky Opera, the title role in Les contes d’Hoffmann at Dallas Opera, Nadir in Les pêcheurs de perles at Toledo Opera, Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi at Opera Carolina, Alfredo La Traviata at Orlando Opera, and the world premiere of Castor and Patience by Gregory Spears, in the role of Nestor, at Cincinnati Opera.
Other significant highlights include the title role Candide at Opera National de Lorraine in France, Rinaldo in Armida with Virginia Opera, a role he previously sang in the UK’s prestigious Garsington Opera Festival, the title role Orpheus at New York City Opera, Sportin’ Life in Francesca Zambello’s production of Porgy and Bess on tour worldwide, and Rodolfo in Zambello’s La bohème at Royal Albert Hall in London.
With a natural ability for contemporary music, Victor inaugurated the role of Benny “Kid” Paret in Terence Blanchard’s celebrated Champion in its world premiere at Washington National Opera and later revived the role at Detroit Opera and at Opera de Montreal. He appeared as Hosea Williams in Douglas Tappin’s I Dream, a piece based upon a series of dreams, reminiscences and premonitions leading up to a fateful moment in modern American history— the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King. In his off-Broadway début, Victor joined the cast of Three Mo’ Tenors at the Little Schubert Theatre and remained with the show when it toured the US and played in Scotland at the Edinburgh Festival, in Moscow, the Dominican Republic, and at the UK’s Henley Festival. He made his professional début in Baz Luhrmann’s Rent, an adaptation of Puccini’s La bohème, at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles in a record 82 sold-out performances, for which he won the coveted Ovation Award.