Jenny Lind
For the locomotive named after her, please see Jenny Lind locomotive
Johanna Maria Lind (October 6, 1820 – November 2, 1887), better known as Jenny Lind, was a Swedish-born singer, often known as the Swedish Nightingale.
Born in Stockholm, she was noted for her singing voice from a very young age. When she was nine years old, her singing was overheard by a passerby, who the next day came with a music master and paid who had charge of Lind to give her up. She began to sing on stage when she was ten, and by the age of 16 she was a favorite in the Royal Swedish Opera. Her first great role was Agathe, in Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz in 1838. She was received throughout Europe with tremendous acclaim. She studied in 1841 with Manoel Garcia in Paris. Her first performance in England was on May 4, 1847, in the role of Alice in Giacomo Meyerbeer's Robert le Diable, which led to great successes in London, Manchester, Liverpool, Berlin, and Stockholm.
In January 1849, she performed in concert in Norwich, the first concert was organised by the Norwich Choral Society. She liked the city so much that she gave two free concerts a fortnight later. These concerts raised £1,253 for charitable purposes. The money raised was used to buy a house in Pottergate, which was converted into an infirmary for sick children.
In winter term 1849-50 Jenny Lind became member of the student fraternity Burschenschaft Hannovera in Goettingen, Germany. She is the only female member in a classical German fraternity. Her membership in the fraternity earned her the name "Little Lady Jenny" amongst the appreciative male members of the organization.
In 1850, Lind sailed to the United States and under the management of P.T. Barnum, went on a concert tour of a number of cities. Her first American performance was given in New York City on October 24, 1850. The tour was a great success, and it was then that she became known in the press as the "Swedish Nightingale". In Washington, DC during the 1850 tour she was the first performer in the newly renovated National Theater. The "New National Hall" was enlarged to seat 3,400 people for her arrival. The entire police force was called out to keep order in the crowd clamoring for tickets. Congress was adjourned and the Supreme Court Justices attended. While in the States, she married a young pianist, Otto Goldschmidt, at 20 Louisburg Square, Beacon Hill, Boston. They returned to Europe together in 1852. Her tour of America created much excitement throughout the country.
Although she ceased her professional singing career with her return to Europe, she continued to perform in a number of oratorios, concerts, and choruses, with a particular interest in Bach. She lived in England for the remainder of her life, where she became a philanthropist, and for some years a professor of singing at the Royal College of Music. Her last public performance was at Düsseldorf on January 20, 1870, where she sang in "Ruth", an oratorio composed by her husband. Jenny Lind lived her last years at Wynd's Point, behind the Little Malvern Priory, and is buried in the Great Malvern Cemetery in Malvern, Worcestershire.
The artwork on the Swedish 50 krona banknote has a musical theme, the front of the note featuring a large portrait of Jenny Lind as a tribute to her memory.
Namesakes and commemorations
Lind's fame garnered her many commemorations in Western societies. In Britain, when the Pottergate infirmary was closed in 1898, a new Jenny Lind Infirmary for Sick Children was built in Unthank Road, which opened in 1900. The Lind Infirmary itself closed in 1975, with the children's services transferred to Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, St Stephen's Road. Lind was again honored in 1985 when this Norfolk and Norwich wing was named the Jenny Lind Children's Department. When the new Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital was established in 2001, the Lind Department moved with it, where it remains to this day.
There is a plaque commemorating Lind in The Boltons, Kensington, London. Under the name "Jenny Lind Goldschmidt", she is commemorated in Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey.
Many objects have been named for Lind as well, including the Jenny Lind locomotive and the gold-rush town of Jenny Lind, California (despite the fact that she only performed on the East Coast while in the United States). During her visit to America, she was reported to have slept in a bed with turned spindles, leading to the naming of a bed or crib with vertical bars on all sides as a "Jenny Lind cot" (or crib or cradle).
Many artistic works have honored or featured Jenny Lind. Allen Dodsworth composed a Jenny Lind polka in 1846. In 1941 Ilse Werner starred in the German-language film Schwedische Nachtigall as Jenny, with Joachim Gottschalk as Hans Christian Andersen. In January 2005, Elvis Costello announced that he was writing an opera about her, called The Secret Arias. It includes songs by Hans Christian Andersen, who fell in love with Jenny. (She did not return his affection.)