Soprano Pretty Yende's journey from rural South Africa to the top of the opera world

Transcript

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John Yang: Finally tonight, the story of international opera singer Pretty Yende. Growing up in South Africa, she hadn’t even heard of opera until she was almost out of high school. Now she’s being hailed as one of her generation’s most accomplished coloratura sopranos. Here’s Ciaran Jenkins of Independent Television News.

Ciaran Jenkins (voice-over): The historic reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral. Center stage. A voice that makes time stand still, but the world almost never got to hear it. Pretty Yende grew up in rural South Africa as apartheid came to an end. She didn’t hear a note of opera until she was 16. Somehow, six years into her operatic journey, she could sing like this.

She fundraised for a flight to Europe, embodying the hope of a new generation of South Africans. Since then, Pretty Yende has joined legends on the global stage. A unique voice that had been waiting to blossom.

Pretty Yende, Opera Singer: At five years old, my grandmother taught me how to sing. I was a happy child and music was around the house. We would sing every night after supper, hymns from the church. My mom and my aunts would be washing dishes in the kitchen and we would start a hymn. My uncles and my dad in the other room. We would all literally. Harmony was something that was always around me. I didn’t know well how to speak English and so I had to learn English watching the cartoons.

Ciaran Jenkins: What were you speaking?

Pretty Yende: I was speaking Zulu because I’m a Zulu girl. I didn’t know about opera at all until I was 16, watching TV and I saw the British Airways advert.

Ciaran Jenkins: What was it like hearing that?

Pretty Yende: The harmony of those voices that I — something in me, really. Somebody turned on the lights and said, okay, now you’re alive. So when I went to my high school teacher at that time to ask him what it was, he was the choir master. He told me it’s called opera.

And I didn’t even know it had a name. I didn’t know it was humanly possible. And so I said to him, can human beings do it? Because it didn’t sound human at all. My journey is extraordinary in a sense that it’s opportunity that met time and a gift. Many, many other South Africans have had these incredible gifts and talents but were never given the opportunity to explore them. So I’m very grateful for it because I think if I was born in another time, I would not be here.

Ciaran Jenkins: And there are people who put you in the league with the likes of Maria Callas and those truly great singers. It’s like a Stradivarius of a voice, you know, how do you switch it on and what makes it great rather than just very good?

Pretty Yende: It’s always on. It’s always on because it’s out of my control.

Ciaran Jenkins: What would the 20 year old Pretty Yende who hadn’t yet left South Africa to conquer the world say to this version of you?

Pretty Yende: I am so proud of you. Thank you for taking the leap of faith and thank you for not giving up and for staying true of why you do it, to connect, to share the joy that I heard when I heard music. And don’t give up.

I’m tearing up because there’s a level of not knowing when you have a dream and you don’t know how big the dream becomes and then the stress and then the pressure. But I’m just a human being with a gift that I want to share with as many souls as possible. And so the circumstances always said no. But that little faith brought this 20 year old to this point. 40 year old here.

Ciaran Jenkins: This certainly worked out.

Pretty Yende: So well. So well.

John Yang: That’s Ciaran Jenkins of Independent Television News.