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Jenny Lind
From the grim realities of war it is a relief to turn to the gentle arts of
the sweet singers, who have made us forget for the nonce life’s burden and
lifted us to realms of nobler aims and higher impulses. During the last cen-
tury Sweden gave to the world two of the sweetest singers that ever charmed
rapt audiences with divine melody, Jenny Lind and Christine Nilsson.
Jenny Lind was born in Stockholm, October 6, 1820. She received her
early training in the school of singing attached to the Royal Theatre in Stock-
holm, and made her debut in opera at that theatre in March, 1838, as Agatha
in Weber’s “ Der Freischutz,” and made an instant hit; afterward singing
Alice in “ Robert le Diable,” and Giulia in “ La Vestale,” all with brilliant
success. In June, 1841, she went to Paris and took lessons from Garcia for
nine months. Meyerbeer, who happened to be in Paris at the time, heard
her, was delighted, and predicted for her a brilliant future. She obtained a
hearing at the opera in 1842, but no engagement followed. Naturally hurt
at this, she is said to have determined never to accept an engagement in
Paris; and, whether that is true or not, it is certain that in March, 1847, she
declined an engagement at the Academie Royale, nor did she ever appear in
Paris again. She went to Berlin and studied German, but returned to Stock-
holm in September, 1844, to take part in the fetes at the crowning of King
Oscar I. She returned to Berlin in October and obtained an engagement at
the opera, through the influence of Meyerbeer, who had written for her the
principal role in his “ Feldlager in Schlesien,” afterward remodelled as
“L’Etoile du Nord.” She appeared first December 15 as Norma, made a
hit in that character, and afterward sang with equal success her part in
Meyerbeer’s new opera. In the following year she sang at Hamburg, Cologne
and Coblentz, and in Copenhagen on her return to Stockholm, enjoying
everywhere a triumphant success. The next year, 1846, she was engaged
in Vienna and appeared there for the first time, April 18, 1846. On May 4,
1847, s^ie made her first appearance in London at Her Majesty’s Theatre,
as Alice in “ Robert.” Moscheles had already met her in Berlin, and wrote
thus of her performance in “The Camp of Silesia:”
« Jenny Lind has fairly enchanted me. She is unique in her way, and her song, with two
concertante flutes, is perhaps the most incredible performance, in the way of bravura singing,
ever accomplished. How lucky I was to find her at home! What a glorious singer she is and
so unpretentious withal.”
Mendelssohn wrote of her:
“ In my whole life I have not seen an artistic nature so noble, so genuine, so true, as that
of Jenny Lind. Natural gifts, study, and depth of feeling I have never seen united in the same
degree; and, although one of these qualities may have been more prominent in other persons,
the combination of all three has never existed before.”
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