Dreams

Pretty Yende (soprano) & Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Sagripanti

South African soprano Pretty Yende lives her Cinderella story in her brand new album, ‘Dreams’.

Dreams is the theme of Pretty Yende’s second album with signature pieces from the bel canto repertoire including ‘Je veux vivre’ from Gounod’s Roméo et Juliet and Lucia’s mad scene. Pretty Yende not only slips into the various dreams of young opera heroines but also pays homage to her own dream-come-true, becoming one of today's most celebrated sopranos. Pretty’s debut album, ‘A Journey’ gained sensational media attention worldwide with appearances on the biggest TV shows in the US and France in addition to receiving the 2017 International Opera Award for Best Recording – Solo Recital.

Bellini:
 Ah! Se una volta sola...Ah, non credea mirarti...Ah! non giunge uman pensiero...(from La Sonnambula)
 La Sonnambula
 La straniera

Donizetti:
 Ah! tardai troppo...O luce di quest'anima (from Linda di Chamounix)
 Il dolce suono mi colpì di sua voce! … Spargi d'amaro pianto (from Lucia di Lammermoor)
 Linda di Chamounix
 Lucia di Lammermoor

Gounod:
 Ah! Je veux vivre dans ce rêve (from Roméo et Juliette)
 Roméo et Juliette

Meyerbeer:
 Dieu! Comme cette nuit est lente...Ombre légère (from Dinorah)
 Dinorah

"She begins with a nigh-on immaculate account of the waltz song from Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette. To the Mad scene from Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor…she brings a pure and ethereal tone, entering into the character and her poignant situation within a world of her own beyond earthly reality."
BBC Music Magazine - January 2018 ****

"[Lucia’s Mad Scene] is impeccably sung and distinguished by some gorgeous limpid phrasing, even if it remains a little passive, dramatically speaking…The soprano sings the Linda di Chamounix aria exquisitely, and she offers more character and temperament, too, in the two extended Bellini scenes."
Gramophone Magazine - February 2018

"South African Yende has a delicious instrument, with a youthful quiver of passion to it, and a wonderfully secure technique. She has a tendency perhaps to embellish for its own sake – I yield to none in my admiration of vocal pyrotechnics – but sometimes it comes across as showy rather than dramatically driven. Yet she can certainly deliver the goods, with some wonderful acuti thrown in too."
Opera Now - February 2018 ****