Pretty Yende flaunts SA talent on world stage with Notre Dame performance [VIDEO]

South African operatic soprano Pretty Yende wowed an audience of the great and the good at the reopening of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris over the weekend, proving, if there were any doubters, that this country has amazing talent.

She has come a long way from a township in eMkhondo (Piet Retief) and her career is in an upward trajectory.

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Pretty Yende: SA operatic star wows the world

Last year, she not only performed at the coronation of King Charles at Westminster Abbey, she was also honoured by being made Ambassador for Arts and Health by the World Health Organisation.

Yende’s triumph was further confirmation that the time of South African opera has arrived, with its own uniquely local style – both in the make-up of its casts and its dramatic themes.

ALSO READ: ‘Dazzling’ Notre Dame re-opens five years after fire

‘New flavour and energy’

Opera has boomed since 1994, drawing in talent from the country’s great choral traditions to carve out an important place in a hugely diverse cultural landscape.

Italian-born Angelo Gobbato, a former singer who was one of Yende’s mentors at the Cape Town Opera, believes black singers have injected a new flavour and energy into the centuries-old art form.

Our unique cultural and artistic mosaic is yet one more thing which we should be proud of as South Africans…

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