Pretty Yende
(Sara Krulwich/The New York Times)
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The New York Times
Wily Suitors and the Challenges of Chastity
‘Le Comte Ory,’ With Pretty Yende, at the Metropolitan Opera
By
CORINNA da FONSECA-WOLLHEIM
Wily Suitors and the Challenges of Chastity
By
CORINNA da FONSECA-WOLLHEIM
Published: January 18, 2013
When Pretty Yende looks back at her Metropolitan Opera debut years from
now, two moments will probably stand out. The first occurred during the
overture on Thursday evening, before she had even sung a note, when,
after a brief pantomime appearance, she tripped on a flight of steps and
fell, landing face down in a heap of fuchsia satin. The second came two
hours later, when she took her curtain call amid a storm of bravos,
whistles and whoops.
Le Comte Ory Pretty Yende, a soprano
from South Africa, in the role of Countess Adèle at the Metropolitan
Opera House.
Even without the stumble, Ms. Yende, a 27-year-old soprano from
Mpumalanga, a remote eastern province of South Africa, was likely to
make a noteworthy entrance. The Met invited her barely a month ago to
sing the part of Countess Adèle, a role new to her, in the revival
of Bartlett Sher’s effervescent production of Rossini’s “Comte Ory”
after the soprano Nino Machaidze had bowed out because of illness. In
recent years Ms. Yende has been making waves in Europe, sweeping up
several top prizes at competitions and appearing regularly on the stage
of La Scala in Milan.
On Thursday Ms. Yende gave a mixed performance, marred by intonation
problems and uneven runs in the first act, but settling into her stride
in the second. (She was said to have been unharmed in the fall.) Her
voice has a luminous sheen combined with steely resolve that powers both
her clarion top notes and her outstandingly rich low register. She
delivered some of the most difficult coloratura passages with
scintillating precision, evidently at ease in this repertory.
...
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