Pretty Yende

The 2016 release A Journey served as the debut album from South African soprano Pretty Yende, its title chosen to mirror the successive phases of her singular artistic trajectory. Born in 1985 within the modest northeastern South African community of Piet Retief (eMkhondo), Yende belongs to the Zulu ethnic group. Her earliest vocal experience took place inside a church choir. Exposure to opera arrived through a British Airways television commercial that included the Flower Duet from Delibes' Lakmé. Unfamiliar with the music, she questioned her instructor and learned that the genre was opera. The duet triggered an intense response, leading Yende to abandon her accounting coursework and commence vocal instruction instead. A scholarship allowed her to attend the South African College of Music, where she trained under Virginia Davids, apartheid South Africa's first Black woman to appear on an operatic stage. After securing victories in several mid-level competitions, Yende earned admission to the young artists' program at La Scala in Italy and completed her formal debut at the historic theater in 2010. The next year brought another top award, this time first prize at the Operalia competition in Moscow.

A further breakthrough occurred in 2013 when Yende obtained a featured substitute engagement at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, replacing Nino Machaidze opposite Juan Diego Flórez in Rossini's Le comte Ory. Although she stumbled during her opening entrance, she delivered the essential high notes with precision and received robust applause. The performance opened doors to appearances at major houses in Berlin, New York, Los Angeles, Barcelona, Hamburg, Paris, and London's Royal Opera House. She has also returned to South Africa on multiple occasions for operatic performances. Yende joined the Sony roster in 2015 and issued A Journey the following year. The recording avoided standard recital conventions, instead presenting a distinctive sequence built around key moments from her developing career, among them the Flower Duet performed with Kate Aldridge that had first ignited her interest. Honored with South Africa's Order of Ikhamanga at the Silver level, Yende maintains her residence in Milan, Italy.