Pretty Yende has received an incredible honour from the Italian Consulate Emanuele Pollio, the Order of “Knight of the Italian Star”.
Cape Town, South Africa – Born in 1985 in a remote town in South Africa, Pretty Yende was first introduced to operatic music at the age of sixteen when hearing the Flower Duet from Delibes’s opera Lakmé in a British Airways commercial. At that moment she decided to become an opera singer.
Years later Yende is one of opera’s fastest rising divas, a star of Milan’s La Scala, New York’s Met and as a top billing at London’s Covent Garden.
Yende rose to the top of the opera world with unparalleled speed, with competition successes and engagements at the world’s foremost opera houses.
Yende made her professional operatic debut at the Latvian National Theatre in Riga as Micaela in Carmen and has since been seen at nearly all of the major theatres of the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro Alla Scala, Covent Garden, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and many others.
Today she is a powerhouse in her own right. The Italian consulate noticed too and decided to honour her. They have honoured her with the Order of “Knight of the Italian Star”. Pretty is the youngest South African to receive this honour.
She credits her success to the women who surround her. At the event, she was joined by close friends who have been with her every step of the way.
“This has been the most extraordinary gift I could have ever wished for. Ordine Stella d’Italia (OSI)- an Italian knighthood presented by the Italian Consul in Cape Town Emanuele Pollio. Being a recipient of ‘The Order/knight of the Star of Italy’ deeply humbles and fills me with immense gratitude for such an extraordinary decoration” – Pretty Yende
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