Who was Jenny Lind?
Jenny Lind was considered the finest coloratura of her day. She was born in Stockholm, Sweden on October 7, 1820, the daughter of a language teacher. By the age of ten, she was singing opera roles on the Stockholm stage. As a young adult, she spent a year and a half as the star of the Stockholm opera, debuting as Agathe in Weber’s opera “Der Freischütz.” After this triumph, she gave a series of concerts to obtain the means to go to Paris for further study, but her new teacher did not appreciate her abilities and Jenny returned to her native city. When she was twenty-three, Lind went to Dresden. When Queen Victoria visited that city the following year, Lind sang at the festivals held in the queen’s honor. This opened the way to astonishing success in other German cities. In 1847 she went to London and was enthusiastically received for her role in “Robert le Diable.” Newspapers reported that London “went wild about the Swedish nightingale,” a nickname that stayed with her for the rest of
