But once I start making music, all of us in that room agreed that I’m not there by mistake.” “Sometimes I would enter the rehearsal room, and I could see in the room looks like, ‘Why are you here?’ And I would just smile. When I was the first Black in the Accademia of La Scala it was a bit uncomfortable,” she remembered. “The biggest challenge has always been being the different one in the room. She continues to address the question of opera’s Eurocentrism, and hopes to use her fame and talent as an opportunity to break stereotypes. Pretty Yende at a photo session at the Garnier Opera House, in Paris, in September 2019 STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP/AFP via Getty Images Yende’s career has involved a number of firsts, including becoming the “first Black person to have a new production of ‘La Traviata’ in Opera Garnier in Paris,” in a production conceived especially for her, according to an interview with Observer. Yende has since interpreted roles in Puccini’s “La Bohème,” Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” and Rossini’s “Le comte Ory,” while performing in major opera houses in Milan, Paris and London. Her career took off internationally in 2013, with her debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. “They called my name so many times I was like, ‘No, God please let this one go to someone else.’ I felt unworthy … hearing the kind of finesse that my peers had.” “The very first opera competition that I did was in Vienna, Austria, where I won everything possible,” she remembered. She started making a name for herself in South Africa while still a student at the University of Cape Town, and in 2011, Yende graduated from the Young Artists program at the Accademia at the Teatro alla Scala, in Milan, Italy, and began entering opera competitions. Michelly Rall/Getty Images Europe/Getty Images Pretty Yende performs with tenor Andrea Bocelli in Johannesburg, in July 2010. My gosh, my family were in trouble, because I wouldn’t stop practicing and shouting.” Her parents allowed her to study music at university on the condition that she would switch back to an accountancy degree if singing didn’t work out. “I would play the recording the whole day. “I remember recording it and imitating it,” she said. I did not believe human beings could do it,” she recalled. “Hearing this music and the power of it, sounded like something supernatural. Then she saw opera for the first time on TV at the age of 16. Yende never considered a career in music – she intended to study accountancy at university. It became the first step on the road to performing in front of massive audiences. When her grandmother first invited her to sing in public, she knew how uncomfortable it would be to stand in front of people, but she obliged. Yende says that as a shy child, she always wanted to please her family. Her most direct link to music was church hymns. Born in a tiny, rural town formerly known as Piet Retief, now eMkhondo, in Mpumulanga, South Africa, she had a happy, conventional religious upbringing. The story of how Yende reached the pinnacle of her career is an inspirational one. All the emotions were just rushing in,” she said, remembering the invitation.īut given the 38-year-old’s remarkable journey, it’s surprising that she was surprised at all.
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