Henschel began his international career with a co-production between Opéra de Lyon and Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris in the title role of Busoni’s opera Doktor Faust, for which he won a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording.

The singer’s leading roles include Figaro in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Wolfram in Wagner’s Tannhäuser, Dr. Schön in Berg’s Lulu, Golaud in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, and Nick Shadow in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, as well as the title roles in Monteverdi’s Ulisse and Orfeo, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and Berg’s Wozzeck. Contemporary opera composers such as Peter Eötvös, Detlev Glanert, Manfred Trojahn, Peter Ruzicka, and Chaja Czernowin have entrusted Henschel with important roles in the premieres of their works.

In orchestral concerts, Henschel regularly works with conductors such as Sylvain Cambreling, Kazushi Ono, Cornelius Meister, and Vladimir Jurowski. Recordings with John Eliot Gardiner, Philippe Herreweghe, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, and Colin Davis document his oratorio work. He has performed staged versions of Schubert song cycles at La Monnaie in Brussels, Theater an der Wien, the Oslo Opera House, and the Komische Oper Berlin, among others.