Search - Pretty Yende :: A Journey

Pretty Yende, a rising star soprano with a modern fairy-tale story releases her debut album A Journey. Born in a remote town in South Africa, Yende was first introduced to opera music at the age of sixteen when hearing the Flower Duet from Delibes opera Lakmé in a British Airways commercial. At that moment she decided to become an opera singer. Yende rose to the top of the opera world with unparalleled speed, with competition successes and engagements at the world s foremost opera houses. She was the first artist in history to win first prize in every category of the International Belvedere Competition in 2009 and also won first prize in every category at Plácido Domingo s Operalia competition in 2011. Yende had her debut at La Scala in Milan in 2010 and was accepted into their prestigious young artist s program. But her international breakthrough came at the Metropolitan Opera in 2013 when Yende replaced Nino Machaidze in Rossini s Le Comte Ory, stepping in at a month s notice opposite star tenor Juan Diego Flórez and gained rapturous international acclaim. A Journey is a particularly joyful labor of love for Yende as each track on the album celebrates a milestone in her extraordinary musical journey and rise to the top of the opera world.