Pretty Amazing

From small-town living in mpumalanga, to performing on the finest stages around the world, pretty Yende reflects on her incredible career, the things she’s had to Sacrifice, what keeps her going, and why she hasn’t achieved her dream yet

- Edwain Steenkamp

Pretty Yende is a vision in red when we meet at a cosy coffee shop in Johannesburg. She asks that we sit outside. ‘I love the sun,’ she says, ‘I love being outside.’ We discuss the menu, but don’t expect Pretty to drink tea with lemon just because she’s an opera singer. Instead she orders a coffee and reveals that there’s no point in denying oneself the small pleasures in life. That too, she says, can contribute to feeling healthy. ‘Life is very precious to me, I want to live each moment as best as I can. And doing what I do, I need to be in good health.’ I ask her if she has any guilty pleasures. She answers without so much as a moment’s hesitation. ‘Chocolate, definitely. Give me anything with chocolate in it. And sweet-potato fries, too.’

Her second album Dreams was released in October and follows her critically acclaimed debut album A Journey that propelled her to international fame. She has won several prestigious awards, more recently including a prized Echo Klassik and an International Achiever Award at the 23rd SAMAs. After our meeting, Pretty will return to Italy to prepare for her upcoming performances. There seems to be no stopping her incredible momentum.

We talk about Gioachino Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Antonín Dvorak’s Rusalka and her singing other opera classics, when the conversation moves to her family, who are dear to her heart. ‘My parents suffered because of apartheid, but at home we were never told about those things – about how cruel the world really was. In Piet Retief, they created a beautiful, safe and loving world for my two brothers, sister and me.