Lookout world, Pretty Yende is coming for you. This is according to the November Issue of the USA’s Glamour Magazine.
Pretty, an opera singer born in South Africa, shared a snap of herself in the latest issue of Glamour as part of an article titled, “Girls Who Will Run the World”.
“When @glamourmag acknowledges you as a global role model,” she captioned her Twiter post.
This double album features some of the best classical musicians of our times: star soloists such as Jonas Kaufmann, Joyce DiDonato, Fazil Say, Matthias Goerne, Daniel Hope, Renaud Capuçon and Maurizio Pollini, or Rising Stars like Pretty Yende, Lucas Debargue, Ksenija Sidorova and Marianne Crebassa. From Baroque to Contemporary music, this album is a must have in any collection.
Watch a trailer below:
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Pretty Yende travels to Poland for the first time on October 27 to sing in Poznań’s Adam Mickiewicz University Auditorium. Łukasz Borowicz conducts the Poznań Philharmonic Orchestra in a program featuring arias from operas by Donizetti, Bellini, Rossini, Verdi and Massenet.
Afterwards she heads to Spain to star in Donizetti’s Fille du Regiment at Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville. Ms. Yende shares the stage with John Osborn as Tonio, Carlos Daza as Sulpice and Marina Pinchuk as the Marquise of Berkenfield. The performances are November 26 and 29, and December 2 and 5.
Born in Piet Retief, Mpumalanga, South African opera star Pretty Yende has taken the international opera world by storm. Receiving standing ovations across the world, we find out what Yende’s been up to since we last spoke to her in 2013.
Pretty Yende continues her meteoric rise through the world of opera. Her debut album A Journey received the Solo Recital Recording award at the 2017 International Opera Awards and critics were unanimous in showering praise on the beauty of Yende’s voice and the intelligence of her singing. ‘Hers is a lyric coloratura voice of real beauty and flexibility’ (Gramophone). ‘She displays not only a top-class vocal and dramatic technique but also a high-wire artist’s courage and confidence. It’s the sheer brilliance of her attack that leaves audiences around the world clamouring for more.’ (Daily Mail).
On stage Yende receives outstanding acclaim for her interpretation of some of the greatest roles of the bel canto and coloratura repertoire. When Pretty Yende sang the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor in Berlin and Paris last year, critics and audiences struggled each time to find superlatives to describe the beauty of her singing and the intensity of her acting. Le Figaro wrote that she was now ‘the new queen of bel canto… this is a milestone in the history of the Paris opera,’ and Le Monde declared that she had portrayed ‘a cosmic Lucia… she has a radiant voice of irresistible charm.’
The celebrated ‘mad scene’ from Lucia, a role which she will also perform in New York next season, was the starting point of her new recording ‘Dreams’. ‘My instinct was to look at mad scenes,’ she says. ‘But then I widened my horizons, and thought about characters who have found an escape in their dream lives. All the characters I sing here have a dream: for some it is positive, for others it is a kind of nightmare. They dream of a better life, or a prince charming, or being able to live free from fear. I wanted to explore what dreams and madness mean for each character.’
As well as Lucia’s ‘mad scene’, Yende also includes ‘O luce di quest’anima’ from Donizetti’s Linda di Chamounix, and ‘Je veux vivre’ from Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette. Both of these arias portray young women dreaming of a future life of love and happiness, and it was with the latter that that she made history by becoming the first artist ever to win first prize in every category at the Belvedere Competition in 2009.
The recital also contains the coloratura showpiece ‘Ombre légère’ from Meyerbeer’s Dinorah, in which a young woman believes she is talking her own shadow, and the melancholy sleepwalking scene (‘Ah, non credea mirarti’) from Bellini’s La sonnambula. Yende concludes with the passionate and tragic final scene from Bellini’s rarely-performed La straniera.
With Dreams Pretty Yende also refers to her very own fairytale that continues to this day. Her fairytale like ascent, reflected in her debut album A Journey, has been all the more remarkable for beginning only at the age of 16 in the small remote town of Piet Retief – about 200 miles from Johannesburg. Her life was transformed when she heard Delibes’s ‘Flower Duet’ from Lakmé on a British Airways television advert. Although she knew nothing about opera at first, she was so seduced by the magical sound of the duet that she immediately determined to pursue her path as an opera singer. Her career flourished with extraordinary rapidity with her international breakthrough at the Metropolitan Opera at only 27. Invited with barely a month notice, Pretty Yende gained dazzling recognition for her role debut in Rossini’s Le Comte Ory starring opposite to Juan Diego Flórez. Immediately afterwards she replaced an indisposed Cecilia Bartoli in the same role at the Theater an der Wien.
‘I am so happy to have made this recording,’ says Yende. ‘After all, I’ve been living a dream myself since I first heard the duet from Lakmé. My life is a dream come true.’
Pretty Yende is accompanied by conductor Giacomo Sagripanti (who won the ‘Young Conductor of the Year Award’ at the 2016 International Opera Awards in London) and the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi.
Pretty Yende studied at the South African College of Music in Cape Town. Her teacher was Professor Virginia Davids, the first black woman to appear on opera stages during the apartheid years in South Africa. She then joined the prestigious young artists’ programme at La Scala in Milan from which she graduated in 2011.
Charles Gounod1818–1893 Roméo et JulietteAct I
Libretto: Jules Barbier & Michel Carré
1 “Ah! Je veux vivre”
Gaetano Donizetti1797–1848 Lucia di LammermoorAct III (Mad Scene)
Libretto: Salvadore Cammarano
2 “Eccola!” … “Il dolce suono”
3 “Ohimè! Sorge il tremendo fantasma … Ardon gli incensi”
4 “S’avanza Enrico!”
5 “Spargi d’amaro pianto”
Linda di ChamounixAct I Libretto: Gaetano Rossi
6 “Ah! Tardai troppo”
Vincenzo Bellini1801–1835 La stranieraAct II (Finale)
Libretto: Felice Romani
7 “Sono all’ara”
8 “Vaneggia…Il passo sgombrisi…”
9 “Chi veggio? La regina!”
Giacomo Meyerbeer1791–1864 Dinorah (Le Pardon de Ploërmel)Act II (Shadow Song)
Libretto: Michel Carré & Jules Barbier
10 “Dieu, comme cette nuit est lente … Ombre légère”
Vincenzo Bellini La sonnambulaAct II (Finale)
Libretto: Felice Romani
11 “Oh, se una volta sola”
12 “Ah!Non credea mirarti”
13 “Ah! Non giunge uman pensiero”
Pretty Yende was awarded the 2nd place winner in the ‘Trailblazer’ category for the Young Independents Awards ceremony in Johannesburg, Gauteng.
Themed “African Youth: Be your Own Liberator. We support you”, the Young Independent Awards is aimed at celebrating the efforts of youth in a society where young people are traditionally portrayed as trouble-makers.
One of five categories, the “Trailblazers”, recognises young people leading their field at a local, national, or even international levels. These include top sports stars, academics, scientists, and business leaders.
Acclaimed South African opera singer Pretty Yende has added to her international fame with yet another prestigious award‚ walking away with an Echo Klassik gong in Germany.
Pretty walked away with the Newcomer of the Year prize last week ahead of a glitzy handover ceremony to be held in October at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie.
Echo Klassik is one of the most renowned classical music awards in the world‚ with some of the biggest names in the genre being honoured each year at a swanky gala event.
Pretty described the win as “a dream come true” and told her social media fans that she was honoured to have her debut album‚ A Journey‚ rated so highly by one of the global authorities on classical music.
“This is truly a dream come true for me‚ I am beyond honoured to receive the Newcomer of the Year Award from Echo Klassik. I am thrilled that my debut album has afforded me the thrilling luxury to be recognized by Echo Klassik‚” she said.
The award comes two months after Pretty was honoured with a 2017 International Opera Award for Best Recording – Solo Recital for the same album.
Since the beginning of the year‚ Pretty has appeared in a number of theatre productions‚ including at the Metropolitan Opera as Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia‚ Juliette in Romeo et Juliette and Elvira in I Puritani. She also performed on popular American TV programs The Late Show with Steven Colbert‚ The Wendy Williams Show and Good Morning America.
Reflecting on the success of the album that has seen her garner praise from fans and media around the world‚ Pretty said that the recognition gave her the courage to push forward with her dreams to conquer the theatre world.
“I receive it as a deep encouragement to pursue my journey‚ joyously sharing this precious gift I have been entrusted with on the global world operatic stage. I am grateful to all my fans for their immense support‚” she added.
