00:00Priti Yende is singing Cleopatra on stage, something she would never have dared to dream
00:19of as a little girl from South Africa.
00:22Discover how Priti Yende became more than just a queen on stage and sang for royalty.
00:30For me performing is not really performing.
00:34I am alive on stage.
00:37My soul becomes alive, like there's a smile, there's an inner joy that I can't explain.
00:44It's much more deeper than just being an opera singer, I'm ministering sound literally.
00:52In the Frankfurt Opera's make-up room, she makes the final touches and meets with the
00:56director before the dress rehearsal.
00:58I think it's good when you have a little, just over the shoulder, like, ah, he's awake,
01:05that's good.
01:06And then you go to your position where you, from the hiding place, where you look at him.
01:11Her debut as the Egyptian queen Cleopatra in Handel's Baroque opera Giulio Cesare is
01:17both a challenge and a very special role for Priti Yende.
01:23Cleopatra is one of the most legendary of characters and, of course, she's an African
01:32queen and I'm from the tip of Africa, so it is very, I don't know if there's something
01:37there, but just the mere fact of seeing how her character is portrayed compared to other
01:43characters that have played from the European ladies.
01:48Opera fans know Priti Yende as a soprano who sings on the world's premier stages.
01:57She was introduced to mass audiences in 2023 when she sang for the British king Charles
02:02the Third and Queen Camilla in Westminster Abbey.
02:07She's the first African soloist to sing at a coronation.
02:12It was once in a lifetime kind of an event and to be part of it has been truly extraordinary.
02:18I have such joy just remembering that I was part of it in a very special way.
02:25It was the highlight so far of Priti's international career which began with her studies at La
02:30Scala in Milan in 2011.
02:33Priti was born to a family of musicians in 1985 in a small town in eastern South Africa.
02:40Her family accompanied her singing in the school and church choirs, but she only heard
02:44opera for the first time at 16 in a ten-second commercial.
02:49It was 2001, we were a homeward family watching TV and then I heard this music on the background
02:54and it was the Lakme duet and it was really the power of the music behind, the power of
02:59the voice that really invited me to this amazing art form and world.
03:05She was invited to London to record a studio version of Sacred Fire.
03:21The title for King Charles III's and Queen Camilla's coronation was written by composer
03:26Sarah Classe, especially for Priti Yende's performance.
03:32That's amazing. You're very much in tune. That's fantastic.
03:39The singer and composer were personally chosen by King Charles for his coronation. The two
03:44continue to collaborate. Sarah Classe records another track for her new album with Priti.
03:52I guess we have a better beyond.
03:56She just brings that depth to every note. She brings the depth, she brings the draws
04:05from the well within her so beautifully and you can feel that power within every note.
04:13I think for me that's the thing that creates this special, I think, euphoria, you know.
04:22She has that.
04:27Back at the dress rehearsal in Frankfurt, Priti Yende gets ready for her performance
04:31in the third act. In moments like this, she sometimes thinks back to her younger self,
04:38discovering opera at 16. What would she tell her?
04:42If you hadn't said yes when you first heard those ten seconds, none of it would have come
04:49true. So that courage that you had in that small, unique moment of ten seconds of your
04:56life and saying yes, thank you so much for that and for not giving up, no matter what.
05:05Whether as Cleopatra or as a soloist at the coronation of King Charles, Priti Yende, the
05:11soprano from South Africa, has long been singing at the top league of international opera.
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