Her album, with almost 80 minutes of music, is called A Journey because it charts a course through the music that has featured in significant milestones in her career.
The Act I aria from Bellini’s Beatrice Di Tenda was the piece with which she won three major prizes at Plácido Domingo’s prestigious Operalia competition in 2011.
And it was with Rossini’s Count Ory that she made such a successful debut at the Met in 2013.
Most touchingly of all, in a story that deserves to be true, the 16-year-old Pretty heard on the radio at home in a Zulu township the duet from Delibes’ Lakmé – widely known for its use in a British Airways advert – and promptly asked to be given the opportunity to train as an opera singer.
So what’s so special about Pretty Yende? Her voice is hugely flexible and here used without strain in even the most demanding passages. 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. If she sticks to repertory her voice can handle without damage, a triumphant career is guaranteed.