After his vocal studies with teachers like Gianni Raimondi and Carlo Bergonzi and the start of his career in Italy, where he won the AsLiCo competition in 2002, he moved to Germany in 2005 to fully develop his vast repertoire. As a member of the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe he had numerous opportunities to make his debut in key roles such as Siegmund|Die Walküre, Cavaradossi|Tosca, Siegfried, Siegfried|Götterdämmerung, Otello, Calaf|Turandot, Kaiser|Die Frau ohne Schatten, Bacchus|Ariadne auf Naxos, Andrea Chénier, Florestan|Fidelio, Enzo|Gioconda and Lohengrin.

Lance Ryan enjoyed his greatest successes singing Siegfried for example at the Deutsche Oper Berlin under Donald Runnicles; and at the Bayreuth Festival under Kyrill Petrenko, at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich under Kent Nagano, at Frankfurt Opera under Sebastian Weigle, and at the Deutsche Oper Berlin under Sir Simon Rattle; in the production of La fura del Baus in Valencia and Sevilla, under Daniel Barenboim at the Staatsoper Berlin and at La Scala di Milano; at the Bayreuth Festival 2010 under Christian Thielemann, at the Salzburg Easter Festival 2009 under Sir Simon Rattle, at the Maggio Musicale in Florence and the Palau de les Arts in Valencia under Zubin Mehta, at the Strasbourg Opera under Claus Peter Flor and Marko Letonja, and also at the Vlaamse Opera in Ghent under Ivan Törsz. He performed Bacchus at the State Opera in Dresden and in Vienna, at the Royal Opera House in London, at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and at the Metropolitan Opera New York. He made his debut in Rome as Turridu|Cavalleria rusticana. At the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari he sang Siegmund and Hoffegut|Die Vögel. He then performed Otello in Oslo and Hannover and Erik|Der fliegende Holländer in Stuttgart and at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich.

2009 Lance Ryan sang his first Enée|Les Troyens in Valencia, then at St. Petersburg Marinskij Theatre, both under Valery Gergiev. In 2010 he performed Calaf in a production of the Berio version at the Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam under Yannik Nézet-Seguin. He then made his debut as Apollo|Daphne at the Frankfurt opera. Lance Ryan starred as Lohengrin in a concert with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Andris Nelson, and made his Cologne debut as Siegmund in June 2010. In September 2010 Lance Ryan performed Siegmund|Die Walküre and Siegfried|Götterdämmerung at Shanghai’s Expo. Afterwards he sang Apollo at Semperoper Dresden, gave his debut at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala as Don José|Carmen, and was heard in concerts of Das Lied von der Erde in Kiel and of Janacek’s Glagolithic Mass with the Chicago Symphony under Pierre Boulez. 2011 Ryan made his debut as Max|Der Freischütz in Barcelona, he returned to Valencia as Florestan, he performed Gurrelieder in Strasbourg and in Paris under the baton of Marc Albrecht, and he returned to Barcelona to sing Apollo with Teatro Liceu.

2011-12 Lance Ryan performed the two Siegfrieds in a new production of the Ring des Nibelungen in Frankfurt, followed by an engagement as Bacchus at Cologne Opera. Furthermore, he sang as Otello in Frankfurt, as Enzo in Mannheim, as Lohengrin in a new production in Karlsruhe, and as Florestan at the Vienna State Opera.

2012-13 Ryan portrayed Siegfried in new productions at the Berlin State Opera and at La Scala di Milano, in Sevilla in the successful production of La fura dels Baus, at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, and in the RING production at the Frankfurt Opera. He returned to Frankfurt as Otello and to Vienna as Florestan, and in summer 2013 to the Bayreuth Festival to perform as Siegfried in the bicentennial Ring, conducted by Kirill Petrenko.

2013-14 Lance Ryan returned to the Vienna State Opera as Don José, he sang as Tannhäuser at the Frankfurt Opera and as Siegfried in the RING productions of the Deutsche Oper Berlin under Sir Simon Rattle and Donald Runnicles. In Cologne he made his debuts as Alvaro|La forza del destino and as Samson|Samson et Dalila, and he sang as Siegmund in concerts with the Gürzenich Orchestra under Markus Stenz at the Cologne Philharmonie and afterwards in Shanghai. In Frankfurt Ryan debuted as Tristan|Tristan and Isolde and Midas|Die Liebe der Danae.

Ryan started the 14/15 season as Apollo at the Semperoper Dresden and sang Tannhäuser at the Hamburg State Opera, Don José in Cologne, and Siegfried again at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. Further appearances included Peter Grimes in Wiesbaden, Götterdämmerung in Munich under Kyrill Petrenko, in Barcelona under Josep Pons and in Wiesbaden under Alexander Joel as well as a new Tristan in Dortmund under Gabriel Feltz. Ryan returned to Cologne in the role of Radamès. His debut with State Opera Budapest was Otello. New productions included Salome with Omer Meir Wellber and Moses und Aron with Alan Gilbert in Dresden and Tannhäuser with Patrick Lange in Wiesbaden.

The entire RING recording 2010 from Palau de les Arts under Zubin Metha, featuring Mr Ryan as Siegfried, is available on DVD and Blu Ray, same as the recording of LES TROYENS under Valery Gergiev, which has been released in the summer of 2011. Since summer 2012, SIEGFRIED and GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG in Frankfurt have been released on CD and DVD. Also, the Scala production of the Ring is available.