Meili Li

Biography

The Chinese countertenor Meili Li first studied film in Beijing before training in voice with Michael Chance at the Royal Academy of Music. He completed his opera studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with distinction under Yvonne Kenny. Li won the Farinelli Prize at the London Handel Festival’s Singing Competition in 2016 and took second place in 2022.

On Stage

Internationally, he appeared as Nireno in Handel’s Giulio Cesare with The English Concert on their US and UK tour in 2025, making his Carnegie Hall debut. The New York Times praised his “crystal-clear vocal colour”, ideally suited to Handel. As Licida in Vivaldi’s L’Olimpiade, he performed in a co-production by Irish National Opera, the Royal Opera House and Nouvel Opéra Fribourg (2024). Further roles include the title role in Handel’s Giustino at the Theater an der Wien (2019) and Nerone in L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Royal Danish Opera (2026).

Other engagements have taken him to the Victorian Opera in Melbourne as Shanbo Liang in The Butterfly Lovers (2022), as Orfeo in Orfeo ed Euridice at the Blackwater Valley Opera Festival (2022), as Peleo in Fux’s Arianna at the Styriarte (2022), in the title role of Fernando at the London Handel Festival (2022), and as the title role in Fay Wang’s Orfeo at the Beijing Music Festival (2018). He has also appeared in major concert halls such as the Barbican Centre, the Concertgebouw and the Salle Gaveau, as well as in leading venues across China.

In Germany, Meili Li has been heard as Adone in Sciarrino’s Venere e Adone at the Hamburg State Opera (2023); as Alessandro in Handel’s Tolomeo at the Karlsruhe Handel Festival (2020, 2022); as the Eunuch in Shostakovich’s The Nose at the Bavarian State Opera (2021, 2022); in the title role of Tolomeo at Theater Lübeck (2020); as Nerone in L’incoronazione di Poppea at Theater Lübeck (2026); as Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Theater Gießen (2023); and as Alcasto in Argenore at Theater Münster (2021).

At the Staatstheater Meiningen, he returns following Amadigi di Gaula and now appears as Aeneas in Didone abbandonata.