who is Pretty Yende, the South African soprano who will sing for the king?

The journey of world-acclaimed soprano Pretty Yende is a fairy tale that begins in 1985 when she was born in Thandukukhanya township, Piet Retief, a city in the Transvaal, while apartheid was still raging in South Africa. South. As a child, she saw an advertisement for the British Airways airline on TV, in which she heard the famous Duo des Fleurs, in the opera Lakme by Delibes. Pretty Yende decides to learn singing, wins the prizes and now has a 22-year career behind her. Her voice makes the lyrical planet shiver, as in Paris in 2019, overwhelming in La Traviata by Verdi.

She reprized the role in London last year. On this occasion, she meets the future King Charles, still Prince of Wales. “He was very nice, very warm and complimentary, she remembers today. In fact, the invitation to his coronation probably comes from this first meeting. I must have done a great job auditioning for Her Majesty!”

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“Building a better future”

A black woman from a former British colony singing for the King of England, the image is powerful and doesn’t appeal to everyone, but Pretty Yende, a devout Christian, believes in the power of the symbol: “I believe that my gift is a sign of love, of unity. A bridge of hope, of sunshine, of dreams, of healing. At my small level, I cannot change the past unfortunately. But I think that from generation to generation, as human beings, we can build a better future, in peace and reconciliation.”