February 8, 1923
MUSICAL COURIER
10
FIRST APPEARANCE OF JENNY LIND IN AMERICA, at Castle Garden, September 11, 1850, when the total receipts were $26,238. (Courtesy of the New York Zoological Society.)
fleeted by a many-sided life, three qualities are pre-eminent: Her voice—a high soprano, marvelous in range and remarkably sympathetic in quality. “No one ever heard her sing Home Sweet Home,” says Henri Appy, the young solo violinist at Jenny Lind’s Tripler Hall concerts, “without weep-
A CELEBRATED FINANCIER IN MOUNT VERNON STREET
attempting to convince his beautiful daughter that Jenny Lind’s concert tickets were not worth ten dollars. (From an old print.)
ing. In fact in everything she sang, she revealed, apparently with perfect artlessness, beauties of which nobody had dreamed. She was perfectly original in all she did.” But perhaps one of the most convincing appreciations of Jenny Lind’s singing comes from the pen of N. P. Willis, who attended many of her concerts in Europe and America; “If it were possible, we would describe the quality of that voice, so sweet, so fine, so whole and all-pervading in its lowest breathings and minutest fioriture as well as in its strongest volume. We never heard tones which in their sweetness went so far. They brought the most distant and ill-seated auditor close to her; they were tones, every one of them, and the whole air had to take the law of their vibrations. The voice and the delivery had in them all the good qualities of all the good singers. Song in her has that integral beauty which at once proclaims it as a type for all and is most naturally worshipped as such by the multitude. Here ■is a genuine soprano reaching the extra high notes with that ease and certainty which make each highest one a triumph of expression purely, and not a physical marvel. The gradual growth and sostenuto of her tones; the light and shade, the rhythmic undulation and balance of her passages; the bird-like ecstasy of her trill; the fluency of her chromatic scales; above all, the sure reservation of such volume of voice as to crown each protracted climax with glory, not needing a new effort to raise force for the final blow; and indeed all the points one looks for in a mistress of the vocal art were eminently hers. But the charm lay not in any point, but rather in the inspired vitality and beauty, genuine outpouring of the whole—the real and yet truly ideal humanity of all her singing. That is what has won the world to Jenny Lind.”
A complete musicianship coupled with a thorough understanding of dramatic technic, years of patient practice under such masters as Emanuel Garcia and Meyerbeer, had earned for the songstress a comprehensive knowledge of her art (Continued on Page 53).
one.” What followed is best described by Mr. Barnum, who anxiously stood on tiptoe at the rear of the auditorium.
“The entire audience rose to their feet and welcomed her with three cheers, accompanied by the waving of thousands of hats and handkerchiefs. This was by far the largest audience to which Jenny Lind had ever sung. She was evidently much agitated; but the orchestra commenced and, before she had sung a dozen notes of Casta Diva, she began to recover her self-possession and long before the scena was concluded she was as calm as if she was in her own drawing-room. Towards the last portion of the cavatina the audience was so completely carried away by their feelings that the remainder of the air was drowned in a perfect tempest of acclamation. Enthusiasm had been wrought to its highest pitch; the musical powers of Jenny Lind exceeded all the ,brilliant anticipations which had been formed and her triumph was complete.”
Her numbers in the opening night’s program, besides the Casta Diva, from Norma, were the Herdsman’s Song (popularly known as the Echo Song), and the Welcome to America, Bayard Taylor’s ode already mentioned, to which Benedict had hastily set some music. She also sang with Bel-letti in the duet Per piacer alia Signora from Rossini’s 11 Turco in Italia and in a trio from Meyerbeer’s Camp of Silesia, for voice and two flutes.
To show her appreciation of the wonderful reception afforded her by the music lovers of New York, as well as to satisfy a generous desire, Jenny Lind presented her entire share of the proceeds of this concert, and the second, $12,-500—to local charities. Her gracious act delighted the wily Mr. Barnum, who at once expressed his approval by ordering an appropriate medal struck. The obverse bears the head of Jenny, while on the reverse is artfully blazoned the following: “First concert in America. Proceeds 35,000 dollars. At Castle Garden, N. Y., September 11, 1850. Attended by 7,000 people—$12,500 given by Miss Lind to charitable institutions.”
What was there about Jenny Lind that enabled her utterly to disarm the critics of her day; to hold everyone who heard her spellbound; to bring the world to her feet ?
As a musical authority points out, “many have been her superior in feats of execution—Alboni, Tietjens even Mme. La Grange.” But Jenny Lind stands alone as an unique example of forceful genius. Mendelssohn said of her, in 1846: “She is as great an artist as ever lived and the greatest I have known.” Chopin dwells on “the indescribable charm of her voice.” “Every note, was a pearl,” admits Grisi, her rival.
Three Qualities Pre-eminent,
In considering Jenny Lind’s gifts and character as re-
CASTLE GARDEN.
First Appearance of Mademoiselle Jenny Lind,
0!«
WEDNESDAY ENENING, 11th SEPTEMBER, 1850.
Programme.
Part L
Overture, (Oberon,) .......	Neber.
Aria “ Sorgete,” (Maometto Second¿,) -	-	Rossini.
Signor Belletti.
Scena and Cavatina, ״ Casta Diva” (Norma,) -	Beilinl
Mademoiselle Jenny Lind.
Duet on two Piano Fortes,	.....	Benedict.
Messieurs Benedict and Hoffman.
Duetto, ״ Per piacer alia Signora,” (II Turco in Italia,}	Rossini.
Mademoiselle Jenny Lind anti Signor Belletti.
Part IL
Overture, (The Crusader?.)	.....	Benedict
Trio for the Voice and two Flute?, composed expressly for
Mademoiselle Jenny Lind, (Camp of Silesia,)	Meyerbeer.
Mademoiselle Jenny Lind.
Flutes, Messrs. Kyle and Siede.
Cavatina ״ Largo al Factotum,” II Barbicrc, -	- Rossini.
Signor Belletti.
The Herdsman’s Song, more generally known as The Echo
Song, ...	-	.	- Mademoiselle Jenny Lind.
The Welcome to America, written expressly for this occa-
eion, by Bayard Taylor, Esq. .... Benedict. Mademoiselle Jenny Lind.
Conductor,	..............................M. Benedict
The Orchestra will consist of Sixty Performers, including the first Instrumental talent in the country.
Price of Tickets Three Dollars. Choice of places will be sold by Auction, at Castle Garden.
Doors open at six o’clock. Concert t9 commence at eight o’clock.
No checks will be issued.
Mdlle. Jenny Lind's Second Grand Concert, will he given at Castle Garden, on Friday evening. 13th instant
Chickering's Grand Pianos will he used at the first Concert.
JENNY LIND IN NEW YORK
(Continued from Page 7).
senting the combined standards of America and Sweden, below which were arabesque ornaments in white and gold. . . . We noticed a large motto worked in flowers which was suspended from the pillars of the balcony directly in front of the stage,—Welcome Sweet Warbler!”
The cream of society seems to have been present, including almost every New Yorker of note in literature and
JENNY LIND
in the dress she wore at her first Castle Garden concert, September 11, 1850.
art. Colonel Morris, the poet and one of the editors of the Home Journal; William Vincent Wallace, the musical genius; Mr. Snowe, editor of the Tribune; Elliott, the portrait painter; Lewis Gaylord Clarke, editor of the Knickerbocker and Bayard Taylor, who was awarded the prize of $200, offered by Mr. Barnum for the best ode, Greeting to America, to be sung by Mademoiselle Lind at her first concert.
Punctually at eight, Mr. Benedict took his place as conductor of the large orchestra seated on the stage and the overture to Oberon was admirably played. Belletti followed with a spirited rendering of the Sorgete, in his rich baritone. Then a hush seemed to fall on the vast assemblage; Jenny Lind was to face an American audience for the first time.
As Benedict led her forward, through the orchestra, they saw a girlish figure of medium height, with fair tresses and blue eyes. She was dressed in a simple frock of soft white material and wore a rose in her hair. “Though plain of feature,” says George P. Upton, “her face was expressive and in a sense fascinating. It was a wholesome face. She may not have 1been beautiful, judged by the conventions of beauty Jests; but she looked good as someone has said, and that goodness drew everyone to her. She was Jenny to every-
PROGRAM OF JENNY LIND’S FIRST CONCERT AT CASTLE GARDEN