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 Jenny Lind was noted for her singing at a young age.  When she was nine years old her singing  was overheard by the maid of Mademoiselle Lundberg, a ballerina at the Stockholm Royal Opera.  The maid astounded by her voice brought Mademoiselle Lundberg the next day to hear her and soon an audition was arranged at the Royal Theater School. She began to sing on stage at the age of ten and by seventeen was performing all across Europe.

Fredric Chopin who loved her

 In the period from 1848-1849, a romance was unfolding in secret between  a very ill and hesitating Frederic Chopin and a young and hopeful Jenny Lind.

On the occasion of the publication of the biography
"Chopin and The Swedish Nightingale"
Supporting the fight against TB of which Chopin died.

The one-hour drama "Nightingale Opus 24" replays the actual musical encounters of Chopin and Jenny Lind.  It provides a new perspective on the long-standing importance Chopin attached to the art of singing:   "You must sing with your fingers", he once said to a pupil.

In the drama, Chopin and Jenny Lind's encounters are seen as a real-life replay of Hans Christian Andersen's story The Nightingale.   He wrote this story in 1843 as a tribute to Jenny Lind who did not return his love for her. 

"Yesterday I was at a dinner with J. Lind, who afterwards sang me Swedish things till midnight".
Chopin
London, 13 May 1848

 At Chopin's deathbed 

Even on his deathbed, Chopin still preoccupied himself with song and with mazurkas. He called in a singer friend (Delphina Potocka) to sing one last song for him (he composed his last work (the Mazurka Op. 68, No. 4), and he affirmed his request that the Mozart Requiem be sung at his funeral. (Paris had last heard that music at obsequies for Napoleon.) The composer’s friends particularly wished to include women among the soloists (a violation of church law at the time); once permission had been secured, the great Viardot took her place in the Madeleine for one of the most unforgettable ceremonies of nineteenth-century Paris: the raising of immortal song to the memory of “the poet of the piano.”

(from RogerEvansOnLine.com-Chopin at the Opera)

Our presentation of "the Life of Jenny Lind" at our February klub meeting did not contain all the material that I would have like to have shared.   I have added here  a piece of music  from a  "Jenny Lind Concert"  Und Ob Die Wolke Sie Verhulle,  it is the aria that made her famous as a young girl in Sweden.  I think that of all the modern singers that I have listened to who have recreated Jenny's concerts, Elizabeth Parcell's voice most represents my idea of what Jenny may have sounded like.  Jenny's  voice was described as clear and sweet and plaintive and beautiful as is Miss Parcell's voice. Miss Parcells is totally into the Jenny character even seeming to exhibit a bit of her ledgendary stage fright too. I feel this recreation almost takes us back to the event and we can imagine her charming beautiful voice.

a

Stockholm Opera House

 Chopin arrived at Cavendish Square in London on 20 April 1848 after a quiet crossing of the Channel and a few hours rest in Folkestone. He entered his new apartment and felt very well received.

"The good Erskines have thought of everything, even of chocolate not only of a lodging...the paper on which I am writing has my monogram."

It was Good Friday the next day "and one can't do anything here.  I am going to the intimates of the ex-king."

The whole of London was talking about Jenny Lind, the Swedish soprano.  She was going to perform on May 4 in Sonnambula by Vincento Bellini.  Queen Victoria had chosen this opera to make her first appearance of the season:

"...so there was an amazing rush for tickets. I did not know about it having just arrived and on that very day.  Someone told me that if I knew Mrs. Grote, she could help me."

 Chopin immediately contacted Mrs. Grote, whom he knew from Paris.  She offered him a seat in her own box on the first floor, and she also invited him to dinner before the premere..

 The only dinner guest  was Jenny Lind.  Chopin later recalled.  We did not leave the piano from 9 to 1 at night.

Chopin was very impressed with Jenny Lind's opera performance at "Her Majesty's Theater"  She is enormously effective in Sonnambula.  She sings with extreme purity and certainity, and her piano notes are steady, and even as a hair."

A week later Mrs. Grote invited Chopin to another dinner with Jenny Lind.  This time "she sang him Swedish things until midnight."  Chopin liked their distinct character which remined him of Polish music.

"We have something Slavonic, they something Scandinavian, which is totally different and yet we are neareer to each other than the Itqalian to the Spaniard."

A few days later the occasion arose for Chopin to play for Queen Victoria.

 from Cecilia and Jens Jorgensen--Chopin and the Swedish Nightengale ~ Icons of Europe Press

 Note: This book is wonderful and  those interested in all things Chopin  should purchase it without delay--it also supports the cause of fighting tuberculosis across the world. www.iconsofeurope.com

P.T. Barnum brought Jenny Lind  to America on September 11, 1850.

Fredrika Bremer, the Swedish writer and early feminist , met Jenny Lind in Cuba after one of her performances.  They talked of many things among them love and marriage and Fredrika assured Jenny that age and religion were not a barrier if she was truly in love.  Shortly thereafter, Jenny and Otto Goldschmidt, her young Jewish pianist, were married in Boston in 1852.

The most cherished gift which Jenny took home with her was a patchwork quilt with a floral pattern made by the blind children in an orphanage where she had given a concert for the children.  She had allowed them to crowd around her afterward and run their hands over her body so they could "see her".  For thirty-five years she kept the quilt on her bed and it was there when she died in November 1887.  It was buried with her along with a shawl given to her by Queen Victoria.

 Castle Garden in New York

the site of her first performance in the US 

 She received me very courteously, but yet distantly, almost
coldly. She was, as she said, on a journey with her father to South
Sweden, and was come over to Copenhagen for a few days in order that
she might see this city. We again parted distantly, and I had the
impression of a very ordinary character which soon passed away from my
mind.

In the autumn of 1843, Jenny Lind came again to Copenhagen. One of my
friends, our clever ballet-master, Bournonville, who has married a
Swedish lady, a friend of Jenny Lind, informed me of her arrival here
and told me that she remembered me very kindly, and that now she had
read my writings. He entreated me to go with him to her, and to employ
all my persuasive art to induce her to take a few parts at the Theatre
Royal; I should, he said, be then quite enchanted with what I should
hear.

I was not now received as a stranger; she cordially extended to me her
hand, and spoke of my writings and of Miss Fredrika Bremer, who also
was her affectionate friend. The conversation was soon turned to her
appearance in Copenhagen, and of this Jenny Lind declared that she
stood in fear.

"I have never made my appearance," said she, "out of Sweden; everybody
in my native land is so affectionate and kind to me, and if I made my
appearance in Copenhagen and should be hissed!--I dare not venture on
it!"

I said, that I, it was true, could not pass judgment on her singing,
because I had never heard it, neither did I know how she acted, but
nevertheless, I was convinced that such was the disposition at this
moment in Copenhagen, that only a moderate voice and some knowledge of
acting would be successful; I believed that she might safely venture.

Bournonville's persuasion obtained for the Copenhageners the greatest
enjoyment which they ever had.

Jenny Lind made her first appearance among them as Alice in Robert le
Diable--it was like a new revelation in the realms of art, the
youthfully fresh voice forced itself into every heart; here reigned
truth and nature; everything was full of meaning and intelligence. At
one concert Jenny Lind sang her Swedish songs; there was something so
peculiar in this, so bewitching; people thought nothing about the
concert room; the popular melodies uttered by a being so purely
feminine, and bearing the universal stamp of genius, exercised their
omnipotent sway--the whole of Copenhagen was in raptures. Jenny Lind
was the first singer to whom the Danish students gave a serenade:
torches blazed around the hospitable villa where the serenade was
given: she expressed her thanks by again singing some Swedish songs,
and I then saw her hasten into the darkest corner and weep for emotion.

1847 "Rarely was ever seen such an excitement [at] ... Her Majesty's Theatre. The crowd at the doors ... the struggle for entrance was violent beyond precedent---so violent, indeed, that the phrase, 'a Jenny Lind crush,' became a proverbial expression.

"On the entrance of the new prima donna as Alice, the welcome given to one who, though unknown, had already won renown, was unusually enthusiastic. For a few moments she appeared bewildered and scared, but seemed to enthrall the audience. The cadenza at the end of her opening air---the whole of which was listened to with a stillness quite singular---called down a hurricane of applause. From that moment her success was certain. The evening went on, and before it ended Jenny Lind was established as the favourite of the English opera public. Voice, style, execution, manner, action---all delighted. The triumph was achieved."   Reminiscences of the Opera, by Benjamin Lumley. Twenty Years Director of Her Majesty's Theatre. Pages 184-85.

  from Icons of Europe

Check their Web-site http://www.jennylind.org/

"A body of irrefutable proof shows that Chopin and Jenny Lind developed a close and lasting relationship in 1848-1849."

"Specifically and beyond any reasonable doubt,  Jenny Lind was Chopin’s musical and financial benefactor;  she planned three times to marry him in 1849;  she was present incognito at his deathbed and funeral;  and she contributed for the rest of her life to the enshrinement of his legacy."

"Chopin and Jenny Lind's romance has been guarded as a secret and systematically obscured by deceitful means right up to today.

"Today, Chopin and Jenny Lind's music could take on a new meaning; and the public at large, artists and historians would enjoy and be inspired by their romance."