Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 33.djvu/281

Rh her life, that in spite of her wonderful talents as an actress she never felt the theatrical career to be the highest possible for her. After her third season at Her Majesty's she retired from the stage, appearing for the last time in ‘Roberto’ on 10 May 1849, the closing performance of six which she was induced to give in order to help the manager Lumley out of serious difficulties. The curious experiment tried at one of the six of performing an opera (the ‘Flauto Magico’) without dresses or scenery was of course a failure, though it gave the audience the opportunity of hearing the great singer in portions at least of the music allotted to various characters.

Among the many appearances both in England and abroad which took place before Mlle. Lind's retirement from the stage, one of the most interesting was the performance of ‘Elijah,’ given in Exeter Hall on 15 Dec. 1848, in order to raise a fund for the endowment of a scholarship in memory of Mendelssohn, who had died in November of the previous year. Although, as in the case of Meyerbeer's opera, Mlle. Lind was not the first to sing the soprano part, there is no doubt that the composer had her voice in view when he wrote the music, and therefore a peculiar interest attached to the first of many occasions on which she interpreted it. At ten concerts, given between July 1848 and February 1849, for various charitable objects, she succeeded in raising the gigantic sum of 10,500l., and the list of institutions in England and in Sweden which benefited by her charity is a very long one.

A continental tour occupied her during the years 1849–50. In September 1850 she began an American tour under the management of Barnum, and with Benedict as conductor; the tour lasted until the middle of 1852. In May 1851 Benedict was succeeded as conductor by Mr. Otto Goldschmidt of Hamburg, whom Mlle. Lind had first met on the continent in 1849, and to whom she was married at Boston on 5 Feb. 1852. The whole of her earnings in America, amounting to 20,000l., was devoted to founding scholarships and other charities in Sweden. From 1852 to 1855 her home was in Dresden. In 1854 and 1855 she made extensive tours in Germany, Austria, Holland, &c.; and in the last year appeared again at the Lower Rhine Festival at Düsseldorf, where she also sang in 1863 and 1866. In 1855–6 a memorable tour in England, Scotland, and Wales was undertaken in the company of many other distinguished artists, and she first appeared at the Philharmonic Concerts in London in the latter year. On various special occasions from this time forward she appeared in public, as at the Hereford Festival of 1867, and at the production of Mr. Goldschmidt's oratorio ‘Ruth’ in Hamburg and London (1869). From the foundation of the Bach Choir in 1876 to 1883 she took the keenest interest in its welfare, and gave the ladies of the choir the benefit of her training and superintendence. From 1883 to 1886 she held the post of chief professor of singing at the Royal College of Music. Her last appearance in public was at a concert given for the Railway Servants' Benevolent Fund at the Spa, Malvern, on 23 July 1883. On the naturalisation of Mr. Goldschmidt in 1859 she had become a British subject. She died at Wynds Point, Malvern, after great sufferings, borne with Christian resignation, on 2 Nov. 1887, leaving two sons and a daughter.

It was the charm of her personality, probably quite as much as the glory of her wonderful voice, that won her a position in public estimation which no other singer has attained. Her absolute integrity of life and character, her intellectual vigour, as well as her generosity of disposition, were in strong contrast with the characteristics of too many among her professional companions; and the feeling that she stood apart from so many of her contemporaries may well have caused, or at least fostered, the somewhat intolerant attitude she sometimes took up with regard to certain persons against whom she was prejudiced. It was a very slight blemish on a character of singular beauty formed in adverse circumstances. Her histrionic powers are no doubt to be traced to her long early training in various classes of dramatic art, though her natural instinct must have been very strong. Her voice was a brilliant soprano, extending over two octaves and a sixth, from B below the treble stave to G on the fourth line above it. A minute description of its qualities will be found in one of the most valuable chapters of the memoir by Canon Holland and Mr. Rockstro, and in an appendix many of the cadenzas which she introduced with such consummate skill are given in full (see also, ii. 141, and iii. 508, and Musical Union Record, 1849, p. 8). The ingenuity and melodic beauty of these show that she was an accomplished musician, for she always invented them herself, and they formed one of the most characteristic of her many attractions, giving special value to her singing of Swedish songs and transcriptions of mazurkas by Chopin. 