Pretty Yende to return to SA for one night only
Internationally acclaimed South African-born soprano, Pretty Yende is set to perform in Johannesburg after almost three years.
The concert will take place at the Linder Auditorium in Parktown on 14 April 2016 and will see Yende joined by another award winning South African rising star of opera Levy Sekgapane.
The two will sing arias and duets from ‘bel canto’ operas by Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti accompanied by the 50-strong Chamber Orchestra of Johannesburg conducted by Kutlwano Masote.
“I’m excited to be working with Pretty Yende again after our successful adventure in 2013 and I can’t wait to get my teeth stuck into this wonderful music. Tenor Levy Sekgapane is already making all the right noises in Europe and he will no doubt win over Johannesburg audiences in his South African opera gala debut. I really couldn’t have wished for a better way to celebrate my 10 years as a conductor,” says Masote.
Yende first rose to international prominence in 2009 when she was awarded the top prizes in all categories of the Belvedere Singing Competition in Vienna. She has since gone on to win a further six international competitions including Placido Domingo’s Operalia Competition in Moscow.
Her musical journey had a fairy tale beginning in the unlikely town of Piet Retief in Mpumalanga to now conquering the glamorous opera stages of Metropolitan Opera in New York, Milan’s La Scalla (where she was an artist-in-residence for four years), and the Paris Opera.
She has shared the stage with some of the best names in the business including Andrea Bocelli, Juan Diego Florez and Placido Domingo.