AMONG the invited artists at the coronation of Britain’s King Charles III was the South African soprano Pretty Yende. Coronations don’t take place often. What made the moment special was not just singing for a new king, but the rareness of the occasion.
After millions of global television viewers experienced her soaring high notes, stage presence, musicality and star quality, audiences were no doubt asking, “Who is she, where does she come from?”
As a scholar of African opera with a particular interest in various South African singers, including Pretty Yende – and what is sometimes called “black vocality” – I would like to present a slightly different history of