Jenny Lind

Johanna Maria Lind (October 6, 1820 – November 2, 1887), better known as Jenny Lind, was a Swedish-born singer from Stockholm.

From a young age, she was noted for her singing voice. 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.

Autograph

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. The tour was a great success, and she became known in the press as the "Swedish Nightingale". While in the States, she married a young pianist, Otto Goldschmidt , in Boston. They returned to Europe together in 1852. 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.

See also: List of Swedes in music