Lind Jenny, in fact Johanna Maria Lind, married name Goldschmidt, *6 October 1820 Stockholm, †2 November 1887 Wynds Point (Herefordshire), Swedish singer (soprano). She studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in Stockholm, where her teachers were C. Craelius, I. Berg, A. Lindblad and J. Josephson, while also participating in numerous productions of comedies and melodramas. In 1838 she made her debut on the stage of the Stockholm Opera in the role of Agatha in Der Freischütz by C.M. Weber. Then she sang in The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte) by Mozart (as Pamina), in Euryanthe by Weber, in The Vestal Virgin (La vestale) by Spontini, in Robert the Devil (Robert le diable) by Meyerbeer, in Don Giovanni by Mozart (as Donna Anna), in Lucia di Lammermoor by Donizetti, and in Norma by Bellini. She studied with M. García in Paris from 1841–42, after a break from stage performances due to voice problems. These lessons have helped to improve her voice and vocal technique. From 1842–45, Lind sang in Stockholm and Copenhagen, performing in operas by Bellini, Rossini, Spontini and Meyerbeer, also introducing new roles to her repertoire (including performance as Valentine in Les Huguenots by Meyerbeer, in The Marriage of Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro) by Mozart, as Amina inThe Sleepwalker (La sonnambula) by Bellini). In 1845, she performed in Germany: in Berlin, Frankfurt, Hanover, and Leipzig (concert at the Gewandhaus conducted by Mendelssohn). Lind had her second artistic tour of performing in 1846 through cities such as Munich, Stuttgart, Mannheim, Nuremberg, and at the festival in Aachen The Creation (Die Schöpfung) by Haydn, and Alexander’s Feast by Händel). In the same year she made her debut in Vienna, on the stage of the Theater an der Wien, singing Bellini’s Norma, and a year later she achieved great success here as Maria in Donizetti’s The Daughter of the Regiment (La fille du regiment). In 1847 she gave her first performance in London, where she performed the part of the part of Alice in Meyerbeer’s opera Robert the Devil by Meyerbeer. Her further performances in London had also met with great success (I masnadieri by Verdi) and on the opera stages of other English cities (including The Sleepwalker, The Daughter of the Regiment, The Marriage of Figaro); Lind also performed in Mendelssohn’s Elias during her second stay in London in 1848. In 1849 she retired from the opera stage (during her last performance in London she sang the part of Alice in Robert the Devil by Meyerbeer) and continued her career as a concert singer. In 1850 Lind’s grand tour of America began accompanied by conductor J. Benedict and baritone G. Belleti. She performed, among others, in New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, Havana (Florida), New Orleans, and Louisville. In America she got acquainted with a pianist Otton Goldschmidt, whom she married and with whom she returned to Europe. In 1883 she retired from performing and became a professor of singing at the Royal College of Music in London, where she lived from 1858 until her death. Lind, known as the “Swedish nightingale”, was a significant figure in the musical life of the Romanticism. She was friends with Mendelssohn, Clara and Robert Schumann, received admiration from Chopin and Queen Victoria, and was the muse of the famous fairy tale writer H.C. Andersen. Her operatic career was essentially limited to Sweden, England, and Germany and was decidedly shorter than her career as an oratorio and concert singer.
Literature: H.S. Holland, W.S. Rockstro Memoir of Mme Jenny Lind-Goldschmidt, Vol. 2, London 1891; C.A. Wilkens Jenny Lind. Ein Cäcilienbild aus der evangelischen Kirche, Gütersloh 1894, 61921; J.M.C. Maude The Life of Jenny Lind, London 1926; M. Pergament Jenny Lind, Stockholm 1945; J. Bulman Jenny Lind, London 1956; G. Schultz Jenny Lind. The Swedish Nightingale, Philadelphia 1962.
