The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Lind, Jenny

LIND, Jenny (Madame Goldschmidt), Swedish singer: b. Stockholm, 6 Oct. 1820; d. Malvern, England, 2 Nov. 1887. In very early childhood she displayed the faculty for tune and of musical memory in such degree as to attract observation and at nine her voice was considered so remarkable that she was admitted to the Stockholm Conservatory of Music as a pupil of Crœlius and Berg. After years of thorough study and voice-building, in 1838 she made her début, with great success, as Agathe in ‘Der Freischütz.’ As operatic star in Stockholm and other cities in Sweden and Norway, she extended her fame, and in 1841 studied for the greater part of the year in Paris under Manual Garcia. She went to Berlin in 1844, studied German, and in Meyerbeer's ‘Feldlager in Schlesien’ appeared as Vielka. During the next year she made a Continental tour which established her in a position of supremacy, her great successes being won in Dresden, Leipzig, etc., and finally in Vienna. In 1847 she made her first appearance in England, which was followed by a succession of unprecedented triumphs. Her tour of the United States (1850-52) brought her not only fresh honors, but also large financial returns, and was long remembered by many who shared in the material and spiritual benefits which her noble womanhood and artistic genius conferred. In 1852 she was married in Boston to Otto Goldschmidt (q.v.), then conducting the Bach choir, and virtually retired from her profession, though subsequently reappearing on special occasions. She returned to Europe; at length settled in London; and made her last public appearance at Düsseldorf in 1870. In 1894 a bust of her was unveiled in Westminster Abbey. Consult Rockstro and Holland, ‘Jenny Lind the Artist’ (1891); Rockstro and Goldschmidt, ‘Jenny Lind, Her Vocal Art and Culture’ (1894).