Pretty Yende on being chosen to perform for England’s new king
SA opera star Pretty Yende will be one of the star performers at King Charles' coronation on 6 May at Westminster Abbey.
“It was surreal,” she recalls. “I couldn’t believe the king wanted this girl from Piet Retief, from the tip of Africa, to sing at his coronation.” On the day we chat she’s having some rare downtime but in a few days she’ll fly to Naples in Italy for a recital at the San Carlo opera house, the oldest opera house in Europe.Pretty unexpectedly stepped in to perform in Bellini's Puritani at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.
Her tutor was Professor Virginia Davids, the first woman of colour to appear on opera stages in SA during the apartheid era, and Pretty blossomed under her guidance. “I didn’t even have a piano at home or at school. I only started with formal musical training at UCT. But I do believe there’s a reason behind everything, and that everything has worked out for the greater good.”She credits her father, a taxi driver turned businessman, for being her rock in the early days of her career. “I’m very close to my dad and I’d always call him first. He had this wisdom and openness that would help me. He’d tell me, ‘live your dream – this is what you want’.
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