During the 2025-26 season at HGO, Butler Studio alumna Leia Lensing performs as The Abbess in Suor Angelica, part of Il trittico. Previously for the company, she sang Mary in The Flying Dutchman (2018). Elsewhere in the 2025-26 season, Lensing returns to Glyndebourne Festival Opera as Prosperina in L’Orfeo. Last season, she made her Metropolitan Opera debut as the Fifth Unborn in Die Frau ohne Schatten and joined the company for its production of Queen of Spades. She also returned to the Staatsoper Stuttgart to reprise the Third Wood Nymph in Rusalka. Her other recent performances include Waltraute in Die Walküre and the Third Secretary in Nixon in China (Staatsoper Stuttgart), Third Lady in The Magic Flute (Glyndebourne Festival Opera), and the title role of Savitri (Wolf Trap Opera). Lensing has joined Ars Lyrica Houston for Bach’s BWV 170: “Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust” and “BWV 134: "Ein Herz, das seinen Jesum lebend weiß,” as well as a program of Handel and Bach centered upon Hercules. She also joined the Metropolitan Opera for its productions of The Magic Flute and La traviata. On the concert stage, she has also sung Haydn’s Theresienmesse with the Waterloo/Cedar Falls Symphony. Lensing was the 2018 first prize winner of HGO’s Eleanor McCollum Competition and won first prize in Shreveport Opera’s Mary Jacobs Smith Singer of the Year in 2020. She is a former Apprentice Artist of Santa Fe Opera and Des Moines Metro Opera.