Nombulelo Yende
Soprano
© Barbara Aumüller
The South African soprano Nombulelo Yende joined Oper Frankfurt's Opera Studio in the 2021/22 season, during which she made her European debut singing the Guardian of the Temple's Threshold / Falcon in Die Frau ohne Schatten, took part in Il tabarro and sang Suor Dolcina in Suor Angelica. These were followed by Polya and The Overseer in new productions of Tchaikovsky's The Enchantress (get the DVD!) and Strauss' Elektra, the Sandman in Hänsel und Gretel, Tatiana (a triumphant role debut!) in Eugene Onegin and Milli / A Waitress in the first revival of a wonderful production of Schreker's Der ferne Klang / The Elusive Sound (get the CD!). She joins the Ensemble during the 2024/25 season, during which you can hear her as a Flowermaiden in a new Parsifal, Countess Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro and Natasia, the title role, in the first revival of Tchaikovsky's Sorceress. Roles here last season included Micaëla in Carmen and she enjoyed a triumph at the 2024 Tirol Festival in Erl this summer, where she enjoyed great success last winter as Kupawa in Tchaikovsky's Snowflake, singing Maria in a hugely successful new production of Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa. She also sang Giulietta (I Capuleti e i Montecchi), Serpina (La serva padrona), Carolina (Il matrimonio segreto) and 1st Lady (Die Zauberflöte) at the Artscape- and Baxter Theatre Centre in Cape Town and Youngblood Arts and Culture Development. She recently appeared in the RMB Starlight Classics in Johannesburg. She studied at Cape Town University. A finalist at the 2018 Tbilisi International Voice Competition, she won the 2017 Schock Foundation Prize for Singing, the 2016 Heidelberg Scholarship Prize and 2015 Ruth Ormond Prize. She also won a prize at the Concours International de Belcanto Vincenzo Bellini in France and the audience prize at the Bertelsmann Foundation's 2019 International Neue Stimmen competition in Gütersloh.