Pretty, with a side of talent

Internationally acclaimed South African soprano Pretty Yende, who has captivated opera lovers the world over, is set to grace the stage at the Teatro in Montecasino in November.

Earlier this year, President Jacob Zuma bestowed one of this country’s highest honours, the Order of Ikhamanga in Silver, on her.

This award is in recognition of her remarkable achievements both locally and internationally as an opera singer and musician, and as a role model and ambassador for this country.

This is an impressive feat for a young singer who only discovered opera ten years ago, quite by chance, when she heard the Lakme duet playing as background music to a British Airways television commercial: there and then, in a few life-changing moments, Yende knew that was what she wanted to learn.

Yende first came to international attention in 2010 when she was the first artist in the history of the Belvedere Competition to win first prize in every category.

In 2011, she was the first prizewinner of Placido Domingo’s Operalia Competition. Yende made her professional operatic debut at the National Theatre in Riga, Latvia as

Micaela in Carmen. A 2011 graduate of the Young Artists at the Accademia Teatro alla Scala, she made her debut with that company in 2010 as Berenice in Rossini’s

L’Occasione fa il Ladro and has since also appeared as Norina in Don Pasquale and in the autumn of 2012 as Musetta in La Boheme.

She has worked with Virginia Davids, Angelo Gobbato and Kamal Khan in South Africa and Mirella Freni, Lucianna Serra, Renato Bruson, and Luigi Alva at the Accademia Teatro alla Scala.

Future engagements include her first staged appearances as Lucia at the Deutsche Opera in Berlin, her debut at the Gran Teatro Liceu in Barcelona as Norina, and her Washington National Opera debut as Micaela. Yende will also debut with the Netherlands Opera as the Contessa di Fondeville in Il Vaiggio a Reims and will return to the Metropolitan Opera for several roles including Pamina, Lucia, Adina, and Rosina. She has also been invited to sing her first Elvira in I Puritani in a new production at the Zurich Opera in 2016.

She performs at the Teatro on 14 November.

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