Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 33.djvu/280

Rh tion 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