Born: 6 October 1820, Sweden
Died: 2 November 1887
Country most active: International
Also known as: Johanna Maria Lind-Goldschmidt
The following is excerpted from Woman: Her Position, Influence and Achievement Throughout the Civilized World. Designed and Arranged by William C. King. Published in 1900 by The King-Richardson Co. Copyright 1903 The King-Richardson Co.
She was born in Stockholm and was the daughter of a teacher of languages.
She is said to have been able at three years of age to repeat a song which she had heard but once. At ten years of age she sang children parts on the Stockholm stage. After two years her upper notes lost their sweetness, and for four years she was in retirement. This time was devoted to the study of instrumental music and composition.
At the end of her period her voice had recovered it’s power and purity on every note of its register of two and one half octaves. For a year and a half she was the star of the Stockholm opera.
She gave a series of concerts to obtain means to go to Paris for study, but the French teacher did not appreciate her powers and she returned to her native city
In 1844, being then twenty-three years of age, she went to Dresden and when Queen Victoria visited that city the following year, she sang in the fêtes. This opened the way to astonishing success in other German cities.
In 1847 she went to London and was enthusiastically received. Here she sang for the first time in oratorio.
Jenny Lind visited America in 1850. P.T. Barnum was instrumental in her coming to the country, and by his power as an advertiser he roused the wildest enthusiasm. Tickets sold for fabulous prices in New York. But she did not disappoint the wildest expectation.
She subsequently married Mr. Otto Goldschmidt of Boston, musician and conductor. She appeared on the stage only at intervals after her marriage and usually at concerts given for charitable purposes. In this work she was deeply interested, and we may well add to her title of singer that of philanthropist.
Her later years were spent in London, where she died in 1887. Her life and songs are a sweet memory.
The following is excerpted from Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women, written by Joseph Adelman, published 1926 by Ellis M Lonow Company.
Jenny Lind, a Swedish vocalist. From infancy she manifested an unusual talent for singing. When nine years old she entered the musical academy at Stockholm, where she made such progress that at the end of a year she was deemed fitted for the stage. For two years she performed to the delight of Stockholm audiences, when the upper notes of her voice became clouded and harsh, and the idea of preparing for her grand opera was abandoned. For four years she remained in obscurity, forbidden to exercise her voice, and finding her chief enjoyment in studying instrumental music.
When about sixteen years of age, accident brought her upon the stage one night, temporarily to assume an unimportant part in one of Meyerbeer’s operas, and she discovered that her voice had returned to her with more than its former purity and power. She now became the reigning prima donna of the Stockholm opera, and in 1844 sang before a Berlin audience. Thenceforth her reputation increased with every performance, and in Vienna and other musical cities she was received with great enthusiasm.
In May, 1847, she made her début before a London audience, and excited a sensation almost without parallel in the history of the opera in England. In September, 1850, she came to America, under and engagement with P. T. Barnum to give a series of 150 concerts. Her first concert in New York excited the wildest enthusiasm, and hundreds of dollars were paid for choice seats. Her share of the proceeds of this concert, amounting to about $10,000, was bestowed upon local charities.
In Boston she was married to Otto Goldschmidt, a young pianist who had accompanied her on a part of her American tour. Returning with him to Europe, she definitely retired from the stage, and after residing for a while at Dresden, removed to London, where she frequently sang in concerts and oratorio, generally for charity.
The entire proceeds of the American tour, amounting to more than $100,000, were devoted by Jenny Lind to various benevolent objects. From the days of her early girlhood it had been her chief delight to use for the good of others the wealth which her genius brought her. She was ever ready to sing for a hospital, or a college, or a poor fellow-artist, or for the chorus, orchestra, or scene-shifters of the theatres where she appeared. “Is it not a beautiful that I can sing so?” she exclaimed when she was told that a large number of the children would be saved from wretchedness by a concert she had given for their benefit.
The Swedish nightingale, as she was called, had a soprano voice, embracing a register two and a half octaves, not less remarkable for sweetness and purity of tone than for its sympathetic power. In the interpretation of many varieties of music, from the oratorios of Handel to the rondos of Rossini or Donizetti, or simple ballads, she was without a rival.
A bust of the great singer was unveiled in Westminster Abbey in 1894.
The following is excerpted from “400 Outstanding Women of the World and the Costumology of Their Time” by Minna Moscherosch Schmidt, published in 1933.
The famous Swedish singer, born in Stockholm, received her education at the Royal Theatre in Stockholm. Her first appearance in a leading role took place in 1838. In 1840 she was given the title of Court Singer. In 1841 she left for Paris to study under Manuel Garcia. Under his guidance she gained complete control of her beautiful soprano voice, rich in quality and high in range; every tone was “like a pearl,” according to Lablache. In 1842 she became a candidate for the Concours de Opera de Paris, but, owing to her independent character and foreign way of singing, was not admitted. She afterwards visited Finland and Denmark, and was everywhere received with enthusiasm. While still in Paris, she had received an offer to appear in Germany, and in 1844 she sang in Berlin, taking the part of Vielka in the Feldlager in Schlesien, specially composed for her. In 1845 she returned to Stockholm for a short time and was received as a queen.
The following year she won new successes all over Germany, where she became the centre of all musical interest. The same enthusiasm greeted her in England and the United States, where she spent the years 1850-1852. Her income increased enormously, but she used a great part of her fortune for subscriptions to various benevolent funds. In 1852 she married the pianist Otto Goldschmidt, with whom she made a concert tour in Germany, the Netherlands, Great Britain and Ireland. She then settled near London, dividing her time between her family, charitable work and her musical activities. Jenny Lind was made a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music as early as 1840, and in 1876 she was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts. She was buried in Westminster Abbey, where a memorial tablet was erected to her honor in 1894.
The following is excerpted from the Dictionary of National Biography, originally published between 1885 and 1900, by Smith, Elder & Co. It was written by John Alexander Fuller Maitland.
LIND, JOHANNA MARIA, known as Jenny Lind, and afterwards as Madame Jenny Lind-Goldschmidt (1820–1887), vocalist, was born at Stockholm on 6 Oct. 1820. Her father was the son of a lace manufacturer, and her mother, whose maiden name was Anna Maria Fellborg, and who had been married before to Captain Radberg, kept a day-school for girls. From 1821 to 1824 the child was placed in the charge of an organist and parish clerk, some fifteen miles from Stockholm, and after spending the years 1824–8 with her parents, she was again sent away in the latter year to live in the Widows’ Home in the town. Here she was heard singing to her cat by the maid of Mlle. Lundberg, a dancer at the opera, who persuaded the mother to allow Jenny to be taught singing. An introduction to Croelius, court secretary and singing-master at the Royal Theatre, led to her being admitted into the school attached to the theatre in 1830. She studied there under Berg, who succeeded Croelius in 1831, and performed in no less than twenty-six parts of different kinds before the date on which she made the discovery that she was fitted for a great operatic career. This was on 7 March 1838, when she first appeared at the Royal Theatre as Agathe in ‘Der Freischütz.’ Euryanthe and Pamina were added to her repertory in the same year, and in 1839 she sang the whole part of Alice in ‘Roberto,’ in a portion of which she had already appeared. In this year she left her mother’s house, and went to live in the family of Lindblad the composer, where she could pursue her studies in peace. In 1840 her chief new characters were Donna Anna and Lucia; in January of this year she was appointed court singer, and was made a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. In spite of her enormous success in her native land she felt that her powers could not reach their full development without the guidance of the greatest singing-masters of Europe, and she determined to apply to Manuel Garcia in Paris for instruction. She raised the funds for her journey thither by giving a round of concerts accompanied by her father. Garcia’s first opinion of her voice was that it had been worn out by premature work, but it soon became clear to him that when certain uncorrected faults were removed the voice would regain its original beauty. Owing to the industry of the pupil and the skill of the teacher, by June 1842 she had learnt all that any singing-master could teach her. In July of that year the power of her voice was tested by Meyerbeer’s wish in the Grand Opéra at Paris. An erroneous report was spread in after years that this so-called ‘trial performance’ was given in order that she might procure an engagement in Paris, but the fact that she had already signed an agreement with the Stockholm Opera for either one or two years is a sufficient refutation of the rumour. She reached home in August 1842, and appeared on 10 Oct. in ‘Norma,’ the last part she had sung before leaving Sweden the year before. The most important of her new parts during this period were Valentine in ‘Les Huguenots,’ the Countess in ‘Figaro,’ and Amina in ‘La Sonnambula.’ Her salary for the two seasons after her tuition in Paris was 150l. per annum. She was placed under the legal guardianship of Judge H. M. Munthe on 30 Jan. 1843, and in the same year she undertook a professional visit to Finland and another to Copenhagen. In July 1844 she went to Dresden in order to perfect herself in German and to obtain experience in the German operas. Meyerbeer had already approached her on the subject of his opera ‘Das Feldlager in Schlesien,’ but though the principal part in it was written for her, it was sung, when produced in Berlin on 7 Dec. 1844 for the opening of the new theatre, by another singer. She appeared a week afterwards at Berlin in ‘Norma,’ and was engaged for six months at a far higher salary than she had yet received. On 5 Jan. 1845 she sang the part written for her by Meyerbeer with great success. In the same year the English manager, Alfred Bunn, went to Berlin in order to secure Mlle. Lind for his next season of English opera at Covent Garden. By great persuasion he actually induced her to sign an agreement, which on consideration she found herself unable to fulfil. The troublesome correspondence which ensued, and the threatening attitude adopted by the disappointed manager, had the effect of keeping her from visiting England for two years, during which time she appeared not only in Berlin, but at Hanover, Hamburg, Altona, and many of the chief cities of Germany. She sang before Queen Victoria at Stolzenfels, shortly after the Beethoven festival at Bonn, and in Denmark gave one of the first of her charitable performances which were so prominent a feature of her later career. In December 1845 she sang at Leipzig, and her friendship with Mendelssohn, which began on this occasion, soon ripened into intimacy. On 22 April 1846 she sang for the first time, again in ‘Norma,’ at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, and in the following summer took part in the Niederrheinische Musik-Fest at Aix. In the autumn she was engaged at Darmstadt and Munich, and had already consented to appear in London at Her Majesty’s Theatre, then under Lumley’s management. In January 1847 she sang during an operatic engagement at Vienna, at two concerts of some historical interest, one given by Robert and Clara Schumann, and the other by Wilhelmina Neruda, then an ‘infant prodigy.’
At length by the persuasions and help of Mendelssohn and of Mrs. Grote, her most intimate friend in England, she was induced to set out for England in April 1847. On 4 May she made her first appearance in London in ‘Roberto,’ and created at once unparalleled enthusiasm. The ‘Jenny Lind fever’ is a matter of history, and it is quite certain that the adulation of the public has never been more worthily bestowed. Out of the thirty operas in which she took part during her career she appeared in London only in the following: ‘Sonnambula,’ ‘Lucia,’ ‘Norma,’ ‘Roberto,’ ‘Figlia del Reggimento,’ ‘Figaro,’ ‘L’Elisir d’Amore,’ ‘Puritani,’ and ‘I Masnadieri,’ the last an early and unsuccessful attempt of Verdi. She had immense success at a concert which she gave at Norwich in 1849. At Norwich she was the guest of Bishop Stanley, who became one of her most valued friends, and to whose influence her ultimate abandonment of the stage has been generally ascribed. It is almost certain, however, from the evidence of letters written at different times of her life, that in spite of her wonderful talents as an actress she never felt the theatrical career to be the highest possible for her. After her third season at Her Majesty’s she retired from the stage, appearing for the last time in ‘Roberto’ on 10 May 1849, the closing performance of six which she was induced to give in order to help the manager Lumley out of serious difficulties. The curious experiment tried at one of the six of performing an opera (the ‘Flauto Magico’) without dresses or scenery was of course a failure, though it gave the audience the opportunity of hearing the great singer in portions at least of the music allotted to various characters.
Among the many appearances both in England and abroad which took place before Mlle. Lind’s retirement from the stage, one of the most interesting was the performance of ‘Elijah,’ given in Exeter Hall on 15 Dec. 1848, in order to raise a fund for the endowment of a scholarship in memory of Mendelssohn, who had died in November of the previous year. Although, as in the case of Meyerbeer’s opera, Mlle. Lind was not the first to sing the soprano part, there is no doubt that the composer had her voice in view when he wrote the music, and therefore a peculiar interest attached to the first of many occasions on which she interpreted it. At ten concerts, given between July 1848 and February 1849, for various charitable objects, she succeeded in raising the gigantic sum of 10,500l., and the list of institutions in England and in Sweden which benefited by her charity is a very long one.
A continental tour occupied her during the years 1849–50. In September 1850 she began an American tour under the management of Barnum, and with Benedict as conductor; the tour lasted until the middle of 1852. In May 1851 Benedict was succeeded as conductor by Mr. Otto Goldschmidt of Hamburg, whom Mlle. Lind had first met on the continent in 1849, and to whom she was married at Boston on 5 Feb. 1852. The whole of her earnings in America, amounting to 20,000l., was devoted to founding scholarships and other charities in Sweden. From 1852 to 1855 her home was in Dresden. In 1854 and 1855 she made extensive tours in Germany, Austria, Holland, &c.; and in the last year appeared again at the Lower Rhine Festival at Düsseldorf, where she also sang in 1863 and 1866. In 1855–6 a memorable tour in England, Scotland, and Wales was undertaken in the company of many other distinguished artists, and she first appeared at the Philharmonic Concerts in London in the latter year. On various special occasions from this time forward she appeared in public, as at the Hereford Festival of 1867, and at the production of Mr. Goldschmidt’s oratorio ‘Ruth’ in Hamburg and London (1869). From the foundation of the Bach Choir in 1876 to 1883 she took the keenest interest in its welfare, and gave the ladies of the choir the benefit of her training and superintendence. From 1883 to 1886 she held the post of chief professor of singing at the Royal College of Music. Her last appearance in public was at a concert given for the Railway Servants’ Benevolent Fund at the Spa, Malvern, on 23 July 1883. On the naturalisation of Mr. Goldschmidt in 1859 she had become a British subject. She died at Wynds Point, Malvern, after great sufferings, borne with Christian resignation, on 2 Nov. 1887, leaving two sons and a daughter.
It was the charm of her personality, probably quite as much as the glory of her wonderful voice, that won her a position in public estimation which no other singer has attained. Her absolute integrity of life and character, her intellectual vigour, as well as her generosity of disposition, were in strong contrast with the characteristics of too many among her professional companions; and the feeling that she stood apart from so many of her contemporaries may well have caused, or at least fostered, the somewhat intolerant attitude she sometimes took up with regard to certain persons against whom she was prejudiced. It was a very slight blemish on a character of singular beauty formed in adverse circumstances. Her histrionic powers are no doubt to be traced to her long early training in various classes of dramatic art, though her natural instinct must have been very strong. Her voice was a brilliant soprano, extending over two octaves and a sixth, from B below the treble stave to G on the fourth line above it. A minute description of its qualities will be found in one of the most valuable chapters of the memoir by Canon Holland and Mr. Rockstro, and in an appendix many of the cadenzas which she introduced with such consummate skill are given in full (see also Grove’s Dictionary, ii. 141, and iii. 508, and Musical Union Record, 1849, p. 8). The ingenuity and melodic beauty of these show that she was an accomplished musician, for she always invented them herself, and they formed one of the most characteristic of her many attractions, giving special value to her singing of Swedish songs and transcriptions of mazurkas by Chopin.
The following is excerpted from A Dictionary of Music and Musicians, published in 1900 and edited by George Grove.
LIND, Jenny, was born at Stockholm Oct. 6, 1820 (not, as Fétis says, on Feb. 8). Count Puke, director of the Court Theatre, admitted her to the school of singing which is attached to that establishment, and she received there her first lessons from a master named Berg. She made her début at the Opera in her native city, in March 1838, as Agatha in Weber’s ‘Freischütz,’ and played afterwards the principal rule in ‘Euryanthe,’ Alice in ‘Robert le Diable,’ and finally ‘La Vestale,’ all with brilliant success. In fact, ‘she upheld the Royal Theatre until June 1841, when she went to Paris in hope of improving her style of singing.’ There Manuel Garcia gave her lessons, during a period of nine months, but ‘she herself mainly contributed to the development of her naturally harsh and unbending voice, by ever holding before herself the ideal which she had formed from a very early age. She had been wont to sing to her mother’s friends from her third year; and, even at that period, the intense feeling of melancholy, almost natural to all Swedes, which filled her young soul, gave to her voice an expression which drew tears from the listeners.’ Meyerbeer, who happened to be at Paris at the time, heard her, was delighted, and foretold a brilliant future for the young singer. She obtained a hearing [App. p.701 “She was to have appeared”] 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 this be true or not, it is certain that, as late as March 1847, she declined an engagement at the Académie Royale, for no other reason than that of ‘affaires personelles;’ nor did she ever appear in Paris again.
Jenny Lind now went to Berlin, in August 1844, and for a time studied German. In September she returned to Stockholm, and took part in the fêtes at the crowning of King Oscar; but returned to Berlin in October, and obtained an engagement at the Opera through the influence of Meyerbeer, who had written for her the principal rôle in his ‘Feldlager in Schlesien,’ afterwards remodelled as ‘L’Etoile du Nord.’ She appeared first, December 15, as Norma, and was welcomed with enthusiasm; and afterwards played, with equal success, her part in Meyerbeer’s new opera. In the following April she sang at Hamburg, Cologne, and Coblentz. After this tour she returned again to Stockholm by way of Copenhagen, and once more enjoyed a triumphant success. At the Gewandhaus, Leipzig, she made her first appearance Dec. 6, 1845 [App. p.701 “Dec. 4”]. Engaged soon after for Vienna, she appeared there April 18, 1846.
On May 4, 1847, Jenny Lind made her first appearance in London, at Her Majesty’s Theatre, in ‘Robert.’ Moscheles had already met her in Berlin, and wrote thus (Jan. 10, 1845) 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 feat in the way of bravura singing that can possibly be heard … How lucky I was to find her at home! What a glorious singer she is, and so unpretentious withal!’ This character, though true to life, was, however, shamefully belied by the management of the London Theatre, both before and after her arrival. It is curious now to look back upon the artifices employed, the stories of broken contracts (this not without some foundation), of long diplomatic pourparlers, special messengers, persuasion, hesitation, and vacillations, kept up during many months,—all in order to excite the interest of the operatic public. Not a stone was left unturned, not a trait of the young singer’s character, public or private, un-exploité, by which sympathy, admiration, or even curiosity, might be aroused (see Lumley’s ‘Reminiscences,’ 1847). After appearing as the heroine of a novel (‘The Home,’ by Miss Bremer), and the darling of the Opera at Stockholm, she was next described as entrancing the opera-goers of Berlin, where indeed she was doubtless a welcome contrast to their ordinary prime donne; and her praises had been sung by the two great German composers, and had not lost by translation. But, not content with fulsome praise founded on these circumstances, the paragraphists, inspired of course by those for whose interest the paragraphs were manufactured, and assuredly without her knowledge or sanction, did not hesitate to speak in the most open way,—and as if in commendation of her as a singer, and above other singers,—of Mlle. Lind’s private virtues, and even of her charities. Singers have ever been charitable, generous, open-handed and open-hearted; to their credit be it recorded: the exceptions have been few. With their private virtues critics have nought to do; these should be supposed to exist, unless the contrary be glaringly apparent. The public was, however, persistently fed with these advertisements and harassed with further rumours of doubts and even disappointment in the early part of 1847, it being actually stated that the negociations had broken down,—all after the engagement had been signed and sealed!
The interest and excitement of the public at her first appearance was, therefore, extraordinary; and no wonder that it was so. Yet her great singing in the part of ‘Alice’ disappointed none but a very few, and those were silenced by a tumultuous majority of idolaters. She certainly sang the music splendidly, and acted the part irreproachably. The scene at the cross in the second act was in itself a complete study, so strongly contrasted were the emotions she portrayed,—first terror, then childlike faith and confidence,—while she preserved, throughout, the innocent manner of the peasant girl. ‘From that first moment till the end of that season, nothing else was thought about, nothing else talked about, but the new Alice—the new Sonnambula—the new Maria in Donizetti’s charming comic opera,—his best. Pages could be filled by describing the excesses of the public. Since the days when the world fought for hours at the pit-door to see the seventh farewell of Siddons, nothing had been seen in the least approaching the scenes at the entrance of the theatre when Mlle. Lind sang. Prices rose to a fabulous height. In short, the town, sacred and profane, went mad about “the Swedish nightingale”‘ (Chorley). Ladies constantly sat on the stairs at the Opera, unable to penetrate further into the house. Her voice, which then at its very best showed some signs of early wear, was a soprano of bright, thrilling, and remarkably sympathetic quality, from D to D, with another note or two occasionally available above the high D. The upper part of her register was rich and brilliant, and superior both in strength and purity to the lower. These two portions she managed, however, to unite in the most skilful way, moderating the power of her upper notes so as not to outshine the lower. She had also a wonderfully, developed ‘length of breath,’ which enabled her to perform long and difficult passages with ease, and to fine down her tones to the softest pianissimo, while still maintaining the quality unvaried. Her execution was very great, her shake true and brilliant, her taste in ornament altogether original, and she usually invented her own cadenze. In a song from ‘Beatrice di Tenda,’ she had a chromatic cadence ascending to E in alt, and descending to the note whence it had risen, which could scarcely be equalled for difficulty and perfection of execution. The following, sung by her at the end of ‘Ah! non giunge,’ was given to the present writer by an ear-witness.
In this comparatively simple cadenza, the high D, C, E, though rapidly struck, were not given in the manner of a shake, but were positively martelées, and produced an extraordinary effect. Another cadence, which, according to Moscheles, ‘electrified’ them at the Gewandhaus, occurred three times in one of Chopin’s Mazurkas. [App. p.701 “See a cadence of hers in the Musical Union Record, 1849, p. 8.”]
‘What shall I say of Jenny Lind?’ he writes again (1847): ‘I can find no words adequate to give you any real idea of the impression she has made.… This is no short-lived fit of public enthusiasm. I wanted to know her off the stage as well as on; but, as she lives some distance from me, I asked her in a letter to fix upon an hour for me to call. Simple and unceremonious as she is, she came the next day herself, bringing her answer verbally. So much modesty and so much greatness united are seldom if ever to be met with; and, although her intimate friend Mendelssohn had given me an insight into the noble qualities of her character, I was surprised to find them so apparent.’ Again and again he speaks in the warmest terms of her, and subsequently of her and her husband together.
Meanwhile Mlle. Lind maintained the mark which she had made in ‘Robert,’ by her impersonation of the Sonnambula, a most effective character,—’Lucia,’ Adina, in ‘L’Elisir,’ ‘La Figlia del Regimento,’ and, perhaps, altogether her best part, Giulia in Spontini’s ‘Vestale.’ In 1848 she returned to Her Majesty’s Theatre, and added to these ‘Lucia di Lammermoor’ and ‘L’Elisir d’Amore.’ In 1849 she announced her intention not to appear again on the stage, but so far modified this resolution as to sing at Her Majesty’s Theatre in Mozart’s ‘Flauto Magico’ arranged as a concert, without acting (April 15); and still further by re-appearing in ‘La Sonnambula’ (April 26) and 3 other operas. Her last appearance ‘on any stage’ took place in ‘Roberto,’ May 18 [App. p.819 “May 10”], 1849. [App. p.819 “Add that she sang in April and May, 1849, for Lumley, as farewell appearances, at one concert (Flauto Magico), and in six operatic performances, viz. April 26, Sonnambula; 28, Lucia; May 3, Figlia; 5, Sonnambula; 8, Lucia; 10, Roberto (her last appearance on the stage).
Lumley, in his book, mentions four, meaning perhaps four different parts, or possibly with the idea of undervaluing her assistance, which, according to Nassau Senior, was gratuitously given to Lumley.
According to Léon Fillet and Arthur Pougin (Le Ménestrel, Nov. 20, 1887), the ‘hearing’ of Mlle. Lind (1842) by Meyerbeer, of which so much has been said and written, had no reference whatever to an engagement at the Opéra at Paris. It seems to have been altogether private, and unconnected with any question of the sort.”] Henceforward she betook herself to the more congenial platform of the concert-room. How she sang there, many of the present generation can still remember,—’the wild, queer, northern tunes brought here by her—her careful expression of some of Mozart’s great airs—her mastery over such a piece of execution as the Bird song in Haydn’s Creation—and lastly, the grandeur of inspiration with which the “Sanctus” of angels in Mendelssohn’s “Elijah” was led by her (the culminating point in that Oratorio). These are the triumphs which will stamp her name in the Golden Book of singers’ (Chorley). On the other hand, the wondrous effect with which she sang a simple ballad, in the simplest possible manner, can never be forgotten by those who ever heard it. After another season in London, and a visit to Ireland in 1848, Mlle. Lind was engaged by Barnum, the American speculator, to make a tour of the United States. She arrived there in 1850, and remained for nearly two years, during part of the time unfettered by an engagement with any impresario, but accompanied by Mr., now Sir Julius, Benedict. The Americans, with their genius for appreciation and hospitality, welcomed her everywhere with frantic enthusiasm, and she made £20,000 in this progress. Here it was, in Boston, on Feb. 5, 1852, that she married Mr. Otto Goldschmidt. [Goldschmidt.]
Returned to Europe, Mme. Goldschmidt now travelled through Holland, and again visited Germany. In 1856 she came once more to England, and, until recent years, appeared frequently in oratorios and concerts.
It must be recorded that the whole of her American earnings was devoted to founding and endowing art-scholarships and other charities in her native Sweden; while, in England, the country of her adoption, among other charities, she has given a whole hospital to Liverpool and a wing of another to London. The scholarship founded in memory of her friend Felix Mendelssohn also benefited largely by her help and countenance; and it may be said with truth that her generosity and her sympathy are never appealed to in vain by those who have any just claims upon them. [Mendelssohn Scholarship.]
Madame Lind-Goldschmidt now lives in London, respected and admired by all who know her, the mother of a family, mixing in society, but in no degree losing her vivid interest in music. The Bach Choir, conducted by Mr. Goldschmidt, which has lately given the English public the first opportunity of hearing in its entirety the B minor Mass of that composer, has profited in no small degree by the careful training bestowed on the female portion of the chorus by this great singer, and the enthusiasm inspired by her presence among them.
[App. p. 701 “Add that from Easter 1883 to Easter 1886 she was professor of singing at the Royal College of Music, and that she died at Wynd’s Point, Malvern, on Nov. 2, 1887.”]