Background and career
Johanna Maria "Jenny" Lind (Madame Goldschmidt) (6 October 1820 – 2 November 1887), was a Swedish opera singer, often called the "Swedish Nightingale". One of the most highly regarded singers of the 19th century, she performed in soprano roles in opera in Sweden and across Europe, and undertook an extraordinarily popular concert tour of the United States beginning in 1850. She was a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music from 1840.
Lind became famous after her performance as Agathe in Der Freischütz at the Royal Swedish Opera in 1838. Within a few years, she had suffered vocal damage, but the singing teacher Manuel García saved her voice. She was in great demand in opera roles throughout Sweden and northern Europe during the 1840s, and was closely associated with Felix Mendelssohn. After two acclaimed seasons in London, she announced her retirement from opera at the age of 29.
In 1850, Lind went to the United States at the invitation of the showman P. T. Barnum. She gave 93 large-scale concerts for him and then continued to tour under her own management. She earned more than $350,000 (equivalent to $13,545,000 in 2025) from these concerts, donating the proceeds to charities, principally the endowment of free schools in Sweden. With her new husband, Otto Goldschmidt, she returned to Europe in 1852, settling in England in 1855. She had three children and gave occasional concerts over the next three decades. From 1882, she was a professor of singing at the Royal College of Music in London for some years.
