A modern fairy-tale. Born in in the small town of Piet Retief, South African soprano Pretty Yende has risen to the top of the opera world with unparalleled speed.
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.
The singing “sounded so supernatural I thought it could never be human”, Yende said of the “Flower Duet” from Delibes’ opera Lakme which was used in the now classic airline advert.
Fifteen years later Yende is one of opera’s fastest rising divas, a star of Milan’s La Scala, New York’s Met and a top billing at London’s Covent Garden.
Yende has risen to the top of the opera world with unparalleled speed, with competition successes and engagements at the world’s foremost opera houses.
The incredibly talented soprano, first came to international attention in 2010 when she became the first artist in the history of the Belvedere Competition to win First Prize in every category. She also won First Prize in Placido Domingo’s Operalia Competition in 2011.
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 theaters of the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Covent Garden, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and many others.
“Possessed of diamanté tone and a megawatt smile, the young South African soprano seems to take charge of the stage wherever she goes” – The Telegraph
“A voice that can reach to the stars” – The Washington Post
Yende’s has also just released her debut album which celebrates the milestones of her sublime musical journey; starting at the age of 16, when she first got into touch with Opera to her debut at La Scala and her international breakthrough at New York’s Metropolitan Opera.
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