Jenny Lind's tour of America
Lind's concerts featured a supporting baritone, Giovanni Belletti, and her London colleague Julius Benedict as pianist, arranger and conductor.
Lind found Barnum's relentless commercial promotion of her increasingly distasteful, and she terminated her contract with him in 1851 under amicable circumstances, continuing to tour for nearly a year under her own management.
[4] After checking Barnum's credit with a London bank, on 9 January 1850, Lind accepted his offer of $1,000 a night (plus expenses) for up to 150 concerts in the United States.
She insisted on the services of Julius Benedict, a German conductor, composer and pianist with whom she had worked in England, and of the Italian baritone Giovanni Belletti as assisting artist, since solo recitals were still unknown to American audiences.
Her biographical pamphlet and photograph proclaimed: "It is her intrinsic worth of heart and delicacy of mind that produces Jenny's vocal potency."
In a statement to the New York Herald, Barnum spoke of the huge sums he had committed, but assured the paper, "If I knew I should not raise a farthing profit I would yet ratify the engagement, so anxious I am that the United States should be visited by a lady whose vocal powers have never been approached by any other human being, and whose character is charity, simplicity and goodness personified.
"[5] In August 1850, before Lind left England, sailing from Liverpool on the paddle steamer Atlantic, Barnum arranged for her to give two farewell concerts at the city's Philharmonic Hall.
[7] A critic engaged by Barnum to cover the concert wrote of the enthusiasm of the Liverpool public and its grief at Lind's imminent departure.
"[10] When she set foot on American soil, Lind kissed her hand to the U.S. flag and exclaimed, "There is the beautiful standard of freedom, which is worshipped by the oppressed of all nations.
Her interest in increasing her earnings was, it seems, genuinely motivated by her determination to accumulate as much money as possible for her chosen charities,[2][3] but some commentators were sceptical; one wrote: I'm a famous Cantatrice, and my name it is Miss Jenny, And I've come to these United States to turn an honest penny.
[13] Lind's numbers that evening were "Casta diva" from Norma; a duet with baritone, "Per piacere alla Signora", from "Il turco in Italia"; a trio for two flutes and voice, to the "echo song" "Dost thou hear?
", composed for Lind by Meyerbeer, from The Camp of Silesia, sung in English, "in which she performed some astonishing vocal feats that bordered on ventriloquism", and some Swedish songs.
[3][14] These were regular items in her tour programs, but on this occasion they were joined by a "Greeting to America", a song with words by the local poet, Bayard Taylor, set to music by Benedict.
A reporter commented, "The deafening shouts that followed the ... speech were absolutely indescribable – many, even among the male portion of the audience, weeping with emotion.
[15] Under the management of Barnum, whose publicity always preceded her and whipped up enthusiasm (he had up to 26 journalists on his payroll),[16] Lind and her company toured first in the eastern United States in her own private railroad car, with concerts in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and Richmond, Virginia.
The thirty-five musicians, conducted by Julius Benedict and including the distinguished violinist Joseph Burke, played two grand overtures from Auber's opera, Masaniello, and then later in the concert, the famous "Wedding March" from Mendelssohn's celebrated incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream.
She would sing five or so numbers during the course of the concert: on one occasion in New Orleans these were "Come per me sereno", from Bellini's La sonnambula; a buffo duet with Belletti ("Per piacere alla Signora") from Rossini's Il turco in Italia; her trademark trio for voice and two flutes composed for her by Meyerbeer; and to finish the concert, a Swedish song, the "Herdsman's Song", sung in her native language.
[16] After this, they performed at Nashville, Tennessee, where a critic wrote: The extreme burst of her voice in the upper portion of its register is far beyond the ordinary range of sopranos, and she has acquired the power of moulding the higher notes entirely at her will.
[22]The last stops in the Barnum tour were Louisville, Kentucky, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where the crowds were so unruly that Lind was trapped in the concert hall for a short time.
[25] In July 1851, the 20-year-old American poet Emily Dickinson gave an account of a Lind concert: ... how bouquets fell in showers, and the roof was rent with applause – how it thundered outside, and inside with the thunder of God and of men – judge ye which was the loudest; how we all loved Jennie Lind, but not accustomed oft to her manner of singing didn't fancy that so well as we did her.
Herself and not her music was what we seemed to love – she has an air of exile in her mild blue eyes, and a something sweet and touching in her native accent which charms her many friends.
[4] He was nine years her junior, but they formed a close attachment and were married quietly in Boston on 5 February 1852, shortly after he had been baptised an Episcopalian out of consideration for Lind's religious views.
The New York Times reported, "Madame Goldschmidt's Farewell Concert, last evening, was attended by the largest and finest audience we ever saw assembled in New-York.
Historian Joan D. Hedrick suggested that Stowe's book "may have changed Lind’s heart" and that ambivalent views abolitionism and race were not unusual for the era.
[31][32] In September 1850, Lind gave $5,000 (approximately $183,000 today) to her Swedish friend, Poly Von Schneidau, for a new camera for his Chicago studio, later used to create one of the earliest images of Abraham Lincoln.
