A MODERN FAIRY TALE
Born in a small village in South Africa, about 500 kilometers from Johannesburg, Pretty Yende began singing in the choir of her church.
South African soprano Pretty 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 as Micaela in Carmen.
In January 2013 Pretty Yende made a sensationally acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut, stepping in on a few week’s notice as the Countess Adele in Le Comte Ory opposite Juan Diego Florez. Immediately after, she made her Vienna debut at the Theater an der Wien in the same opera. The 2012/2013 season also included her first performance of the title role in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor in concert with the Cape Orchestra in Capetown, South Africa.
In the 2013/2014 season the artist made her L.A. Opera debut as Micaela in Carmen, made her debut in Hamburg as Firorilla in Il Turco in Italia, and returned to the stage of the Teatro alla Scala in Le Comte Ory. In the 2014/2015 season Pretty Yende will perform as Pamina in Die Zauberflöte at the Metropolitan Opera, Rosina in The Barber of Seville, the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, as Norina in Don Pasquale in her debut at the Gran Teatro Liceu in Barcelona, and as Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro. In future seasons she will make her debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and at the Opera Bastille in Paris. Yende will also return to the Metropolitan Opera for several roles including Pamina, Lucia, Adina, and Rosina, and has been invited to sing her first Elvira in I Puritani in a new production at the Zurich Opera in 2016.