The Chinese tenor Mingjie Lei began his singing studies at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, continuing them at the Manhattan School of Music in New York and subsequently at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia.
His engagements in recent seasons have included the Holy Fool (Boris Godunov) in his debut at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, where he has returned as Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Ernesto (Don Pasquale) at the Zurich Opera House, the Hamburg State Opera and the Stuttgart State Opera, Tamino at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam and in Stuttgart, Iopas (Les Troyens) at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Belfiore (Il viaggio a Reims) at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Fenton (Falstaff) at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, in Stuttgart and for Opera Colorado, Ferrando (Così fan tutte) at the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Bremen Music Festival, the Lucerne Festival, at Opera Vlaanderen in Ghent and Antwerp and in Stuttgart, Saëb in Offenbach’s Barkouf in Zurich, a staged version of Haydn’s Missa in tempore belli at the Dutch National Opera and Don Narciso (Il turco in Italia) in Hamburg and Zurich. As an ensemble member of the Stuttgart State Opera, he also sang Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Pylade (Iphigénie en Tauride), in a staged version of Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin and First Officer in a production of Henze’s Der Prinz von Homburg that was also released on DVD by Naxos.
In the 2026/27 season Mingjie Lei returns to the Royal Opera in London as Ferrando in Netia Jones’s new production of Così fan tutte and as Hyllus in Barrie Kosky’s production of Handel’s Hercules. He will also sing Jupiter in Handel’s Semele at the Komische Oper Berlin and Ferrando at the Royal Swedish Opera.
His past engagements as a concert singer include Mozart’s Mass in C minor for Opera Vlaanderen and under Teodor Currentzis at the Salzburg Festival, where he has also appeared in Haydn’s The Creation under Jordi Savall and in other works, Purcell’s The Indian Queen on a tour with Utopia under Currentzis to Berlin, Paris and Antwerp, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the St Pölten Festspielhaus, the Philharmonie de Paris and the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, Mozart’s Requiem on a tour with Jordi Savall to the Philharmonie de Paris, L’Auditori in Barcelona, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, the Maurice Ravel Auditorium in Lyon and in Arc-en-Senans, Bach’s Mass in B minor at the Tyrolean Festival Erl and Handel’s Messiah with the Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall and with the Cecilia Chorus of New York.
