Pretty Yende

A Journey, the 2016 debut of South African soprano Pretty Yende, was appropriately named, for it reflected the stages of an unusual artistic odyssey. Yende was born in 1985 in the small South African town of Piet Retief (eMkhondo), in the northeastern part of the country. She is a member of the Zulu ethnic group. Yende's initial training as a singer came in a church choir. She was first attracted to opera specifically by a British Airways television commercial that featured the Flower Duet from Delibes' Lakmé. She didn't know what she was hearing, asked her teacher, and was to...