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125 years:
Time to revive
Jenny Lind's legacy!
The 125th
anniversary of Jenny Lind's death in Malvern was commemorated on 2.November
2012 by the Mayor of Malvern
(Worcestershire) and Malvern Civic
Society.
Malvern Civic Society
sees an
opportunity to revive and celebrate the legacy
of the
Swedish Nightingale as
a source of
inspiration and recognition for many people and institutions
around the world.
Additional information:
 The Jenny Lind Gala Concert
is set for
13 July 2013 in Christ Church, Malvern
to launch Malvern
Civic Week 2013,
The Gala Concert as well as a concert in
San Francisco on 20 June 2013 illustrate the inspiration and
recognition that Jenny Lind’s legacy
continue to offer to great artists and new
talent – notably voice and piano! |
Jenny
Lind's life (to be updated soon)
She was born in Stockholm on 6 October 1820 to “unknown
parents” and baptized Johanna Maria the day after. At the age of
10, she was accepted as a pupil at Sweden’s Royal Theatre and
given the scene name Jenny Lind. She became Court singer
and member of the Royal Academy of Music in 1840,
and spent thereafter a year in Paris to study singing.
Jenny Lind reached stardom as soprano in Europe in
1844-1849 and became known as the Swedish Nightingale
and a philanthropist. Some of the greatest composers wrote music
for her – including Mendelssohn and Verdi – Hans
Christian Andersen his stories. She had a complicated
love life, on which conflicting rumours still abound. In
the biography
Chopin and The Swedish Nightingale published in
2003, the authors concluded that she had a secret
romance with Chopin during her tour of Britain in 1848
and attempted to marry him in Paris in the spring of
1849. The book also evoked her role in the Chopin cult
that evolved after his death and the impact of her triumphal
concert tour of America in 1850-1852.¹
 During
the period she lived in London, Jenny Lind and her
husband the German pianist Otto Goldschmidt were in
1876 a driving force in the formation of The.Bach.Choir,
today of global fame. She retired in 1883 at Wynds Point, a sanctuary in the
Malvern Hills where she died in 1887. She was buried at
the Great Malvern cemetery to Chopin’s Funeral March. Monuments commemorate Jenny Lind
in Poets’ Corner at Westminster Abbey next to Händel and
Shakespeare (1894) as well as in
Europe, America and
Asia. Her image adorns today the Swedish 50-kronor
banknote.²
¹ Based on their investigative research since
2002, Icons of Europe will publish a new book in.2013,
Le Rêve de Chopin, which will reveal the full
story of Chopin and Jenny Lind.
²
Jenny Lind's charity
concerts for hospitals in Britain included:
London 31 July 1848; Manchester 19 & 21.December; Birmingham
28.December; Norwich 22
& 23.January 1849; and
Worcester 2.February
(source: her Memoir, Vol. II, p. 292-293). |
Verdi and Jenny Lind