During HGO's 2026-27 season, Butler Studio alumna Leia Lensing performs as Mrs. Ott in Susannah. Previously for HGO, Lensing sang as The Abbess in Il trittico (2025) and Mary in The Flying Dutchman (2018). During the summer of 2026, she returned to Glyndebourne Festival Opera as Prosperina in L’Orfeo. She recently made her Metropolitan Opera debut as the Fifth Unborn in Die Frau ohne Schatten and has also joined the company for its productions of Queen of Spades, The Magic Flute, and La traviata. With Staatsoper Stuttgart, she has sung the Third Wood Nymph in Rusalka, Waltraute in Die Walküre, and the Third Secretary in Nixon in China. Lensing 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 the Hercules myth. 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.