After studying at the Académie de Musique de Frameries in his father's class, then at the Mons and Brussels Conservatoires with Marcel Vanaud, Belgian baritone Lionel Lhote made a name for himself by winning the Sixth Prize and the Audience Prize at the Concours Musical international Reine Élisabeth de Belgique in 2004.

Since his debut at the Theater Giessen, his career quickly took off both in his native country and internationally. He then sang Giorgio Germont (La Traviata), Scarpia (Tosca) at the Theater Aachen, Fra Melitone (La Forza del destino), Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte), Guesler (Guillaume Tell by Grétry), Le Général Boum (La Grande Duchesse de Gérolstein), Escamillo (Carmen), Valentin (Faust), Zurga (Les Pêcheurs de Perles) at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège, Figaro (Il Barbiere di Siviglia) and Leporello (Don Giovanni) at Opera Vlaanderen, Starveling (A Midsummer Night's Dream) followed by Petermann (Monsieur Choufleuri), Dandini (La Cenerentola), Enrico (Lucia di Lammermoor), Sancho (Don Quichotte), Pandolphe (Cendrillon), Frank (Die Fledermaus), Mercutio (Roméo et Juliette) and Somarone (Béatrice et Bénédict) at La Monnaie, Sancho (Don Quichotte) at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), Lescaut (Manon) and Valentin (Faust) at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, Dandini (La Cenerentola) at the Staatsoper Stuttgart, Rivière (Volo di notte) at the Oper Frankfurt, Faninal (Der Rosenkavalier) at the Grand théâtre de Genève, Le Fauteuil and l'Arbre (L'Enfant et les sortilèges) and Don Íñigo Gómez (L'Heure espagnole) for his debut at the Glyndebourne Festival. Lionel Lhote is also quickly performing on the French stages: Boniface (Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame) in Saint-Étienne, Figaro (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Paolo Albiani (Simon Boccanegra) and Marcello (La Bohème) at the Opéra d'Avignon, Chorèbe (Les Troyens) at the Opéra National du Rhin, Giorgio Germont (La Traviata), Albert (Werther), Leporello (Don Giovanni) and Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte) at the Opéra National de Lyon, Sharpless (Madama Butterfly), Il Conte di Luna (Il Trovatore) as well as Le Directeur de la troupe (Pinocchio) at the Opéra de Bordeaux, Schaunard (La Bohème) at the Opéra National de Paris.

In recent years, the artist has confirmed his immense talent on other major European opera stages. He made his debut at La Scala in Milan in L'Enfance du Christ (Saint Joseph), and appeared in Benvenuto Cellini (Fieramosca) with the Monteverdi Choir and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique under the baton of John Eliot Gardiner, as part of the BBC Proms. He also returned to the Glyndebourne Festival and the Opéra National de Paris in Cendrillon (Pandolphe), to La Monnaie in Don Pasquale (Malatesta) and to the Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège for important Verdian roles in Aida (Amonasro), Don Carlos (Posa) and Simon Boccanegra (Paolo Albiani).

Recently, he took part in the new production of La Périchole (Don Pedro de Hinoyosa) staged by Laurent Pelly at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, at the Opéra de Toulon, the Opéra de Dijon and as the Vice-Roi at the Opéra royal de Wallonie-Liège. He has performed Nilakantha (Lakmé) at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège and the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, Sharpless (Madama Butterfly) at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and the Opéra de Lyon, Valentin (Faust) at the Opéra de Lille and the Opéra Comique. He has taken part in a tour with the Monterverdi Choir and Orchestra of Les Troyens (Chorèbe). He also made two important debuts in the title roles of Hamlet at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège and Henry VIII by Saint-Saëns at La Monnaie, performances which brought him remarkable public and critical success.

He regularly collaborates with renowned conductors such as Silvio Varviso, Evelino Pido, Patrick Fournillier, René Jacobs, Philippe Auguin, Marc Minkowksi, Stefano Montanari, Kazushi Ono, Julia Jones, Roberto Rizzi-Brignoli, Alain Altinoglu, Lothar Zagrosek, Adam Fischer, Patrick Davin, Carlo Rizzi, Alain Altinoglu and directors including Laurent Pelly, David McVicar, Karl-Ernst & Ursel Herrmann, Guy Joosten, Achim Freyer, Keith Warner, Stefano Mazzonis de Pralafera, Dieter Kaegi, Rolando Villazon, Stefano Poda, Richard Brunel, Mariusz Trelinski, Jonathan Miller, Waut Koeken, Joël Pommerat.

Among his projects this season, let us mention Falstaff (Ford) at the théâtre royal de La Monnaie in Brussels, Lucia di Lammermoor (Enrico) at the Opéra national du Capitole de Toulouse, Rigoletto (title part) at the Opéra de Lausanne as well as concerts in Zurich, Geneva and La-Chaux-de-Fonds with Les Musiciens du Louvre.

September 2025

^{This biography should not be edited without permission from Intermezzo.}

Madama Butterfly – Puccini

Madama Butterfly - Puccini