[1] Fyodor was the principal tenor of the Imperial Opera in Saint Petersburg and the teacher of the influential theatre director Konstantin Stanislavsky.

During the rest of the Imperial era, and later under the Soviet régime, Komisarjevsky worked as a producer and director in Moscow until 1919, when, fearing arrest by the secret police, he escaped to Paris.

[2] Sir Thomas Beecham appointed him to direct the opera Prince Igor at Covent Garden, described by The Times as "outstanding … [a] magnificent production".

[3] In 1919, Komisarjevsky formed LAHDA, the Russian Musical Dramatic Art Society, in London with tenor Vladimir Rosing and dancer Laurent Novikoff.

The purpose of the organization was to “bring closer friendship and understanding” between England and Russia “by means of art and its beauty of expression.”[4] In June 1921, Rosing and Komisarkevsky presented a season of "Opera Intime" at the Aeolian Hall in London, with members of the British Symphony Orchestra conducted by Adrian Boult.

[9] In 1921, Komsarjevsky earned good notices for his production of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya for the Stage Society, in Constance Garnett's translation.

He assembled a company including John Gielgud, Charles Laughton, Jean Forbes-Robertson, Jeanne de Casalis and Martita Hunt.

He has relaxed the phlegm; he has taught them to say momentous things in the most off-hand manner; he has imbued them with the spirit of concealing art by being wholly natural.

[15] In the view of The Manchester Guardian his 1936 production of The Seagull, with Ashcroft as Nina, Evans as Arkadina and Gielgud as Trigorin was the director's outstanding achievement.

With that company, he went on to direct Andrea Chénier, Don Giovanni, Aïda (with Camilla Williams, Suzy Morris, Ramón Vinay, and Lawrence Winters, with George Balanchine as choreographer), L'amour des trois oranges (in a production "devised by" Komisarjevsky; he became ill before the opening), and, in 1952, Wozzeck (with Marko Rothmüller and Patricia Neway).