Next Saturday, May 6, viewers around the world will have the opportunity to enjoy the extraordinary beauty of the voice of soprano Preity Gede. As announced by Buckingham Palace, South African Lyric Coloratura will take part in the music program for the coronation of King Charles III, along with renowned soloists and prominent British composers such as Andrew Lloyd Webber. King Charles, a music lover and connoisseur, knows that in recent years Ghent has achieved a leading position on the opera stage, making successful debuts in the world’s largest opera houses: the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Covent Garden, the Teatro Real in Madrid. , the Lyceum of Barcelona and the State Operas of Vienna, Paris, Berlin and Munich.

I first met her in Naples in the summer of 2021, the day before her solo concert at the legendary San Carlo Theatre. Her sociable, bright and warm character immediately endeared me to her, so the joyful news of her participation in the coronation made me especially happy. Let’s not forget that Kiri Te Kanawa’s similar appearance at the royal wedding in 1981 catapulted her already illustrious career into high gear.

We recently met with Gente again in Madrid to announce a new festival in Cap Rocat, Majorca (which she will be playing in August) and she informed me that she was in Vienna when she heard the news from her manager, and of course she was speechless. “But also very happy because I remembered the extraordinary meeting with His Majesty at the Windsor Tower for the 75th anniversary of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. I know that I have been fortunate to experience defining events and moments that have changed the course of my life. But this moment will and will remain a catalytic experience that will mark the rest of my life – and not just mine, but an entire generation of my fellow countrymen now and in the future.”

The beauty of Jende’s voice, bright and “terrifying”, is combined with a bright stage charm that radiates joy for the “Gift” (as she calls her voice) given to her by God. This joy makes everything seem easy, without any sense of effort or hard work.

school, field

And yet her path to the top was difficult and unusual. He was born in the small remote village of Piet Retief in South Africa’s eastern province of Buumalanka, cut off from urban centers and any form of art. But there was always music, mostly church hymns, which were sung every day at the family table thanks to my grandmother. Preity was the eldest of four children in the family, her father was a taxi driver and her mother a teacher. At her first school, “the field where the children sat, of course, there was no musical education, and I did not even know about the existence of a musical instrument called the piano. However, on the way to school, my grandmother taught me how to sing gospel.”

He still recalls the simplicity of life in the African village and the feeling of belonging to a close-knit community. “In my village, if you had two apples, the second one was for someone else. I miss this life and whenever my career allows, I return to my village.” (There he spent the entire period of the pandemic – forced inactivity.) “Even today, in the days when I sing, I calm down, cooking with spices, with the smells of my homeland.”

In my village, if you had two apples, the second one was for someone else. I miss this life.

First contact

He was already sixteen years old when he first heard operatic music—Duet Flowers from Delibes’ Lamé—in a British Airways radio ad, “and I was blinded by joy and wonder. How can a human voice make such wonderful sounds? This duet was so indescribably beautiful that I told myself that I would also like to feel this joy.” The teacher explained to her that this art is called opera, and the student immediately asked to learn how to sing like this, although the school did not have a piano, and the nearest opera house was far away. But fortunately, since 2001, the government has included opera in the school music curriculum, and the first piece of opera she learned and sang was – what else? – her favorite “Duet of Flowers”. “Finally, I was able to experience in my body the joy that filled me when I first heard this duet, and to share it with others is a necessary condition for me.”

She soon began to represent her province in national singing competitions, and in her sophomore year she won a soprano prize in one of them, a pass to the National College of Music in Cape Town, where she studied music from scratch. After graduating with honors, she realized that her future lay in Europe and that the only thing preventing her talented South African colleagues from shining on the international stage was financial difficulties. So he figured that if he applied to every major international competition with the only requirement of a return ticket, that would mean dozens of auditions. He participated in Belvedere in Vienna in 2009, in Vincenzo Bellini in 2010 and in Placido Domingo’s Operalia in 2011. He won them all!

It seemed unbelievable to me how such a beautiful world as the world of music was filled with so many toxic people…

This was followed by two years of study at the Academy of Young Singers at La Scala in Milan, where, thanks to the famous soprano Mirella Freni, she discovered the true nature of her voice and headed towards the bel canto (purely Italian opera) repertoire. . But he had a hard time at the academy. “It seemed incredible to me how such a beautiful world as the world of music was full of so many toxic people… I came from South Africa with an open heart, ready and willing to learn, learn. But I got to the point where I wanted to give up and go home. And the day I made this decision, I sat on the steps of the theater and cried.

Suddenly, Ilias (S.S. Tsebetonidis, then director of distribution for The Rock in Milan, before becoming Artistic Director of the Paris Opera and now the Teatro San Carlo in Naples) walked in front of me and asked: “What are you doing here, Preity, in this situation?” “I want to drop everything, go back home,” I replied. “Come to my office,” he said, although the day was already running out and he was going home. On the wall of his office, he showed me a series of posters of Maria Callas, for whom he has a passion, in the images of Lucia, Norma, Anna Bolena, Tosca, Imogeny, and told me: “You know, one day you will sing these roles too.” He must have seen something in me that was not yet obvious to everyone. He is one of two people who have guided me and shaped me creatively and who make me who I am today.” (According to Ilias Tsebetonides, he saw “a diamond that had not yet been cut and polished, but was already shining beneath the surface.”)

Tsebetonidis introduced her to Markela Devia, a former leading bel canto singer, and Jedte learned to trust herself, love singing again and discover her true voice. As Angelo Gobato, her teacher at the Academy of Music in South Africa, explained to her, “No one is perfect. The point is to find the truth in every role and every opera and tell it to us. If you understand this and can do it, you are on the right track and you will succeed. Because that’s what audiences are looking for, and to this mysterious blending of role-playing truth with your own truth, they respond. In everyday life, you can pretend to be anything. But the moment you step on stage, you can’t hide or conceal anything. You are naked. Because your whole being, your whole truth, is expressed through your voice. At that moment, everyone knows exactly who you are.”

Rapture Callas

When Gente sang La Traviata in Palermo, an experienced journalist who saw this opera with Callas approached her and said: “After Maria, I have never seen anything more sincere, as deep and true as what you brought to the rental.” “As you can imagine, it meant everything to me because she is the only one I draw inspiration from. I have never had idols because all artists have something special to offer our art. But Maria had an incredible way of telling a story with her voice – and that’s my only inspiration. I hope to be one of the artists who convey her flame, her feverish and unstoppable search for truth. Not perfect – because who is perfect? – but the truth.