A Swedish Soprano, an American Showman, and the Greatest Concert Tour

In ‘This Week in History,’ the ‘Swedish Nightingale’ arrived in New York to begin her historic concert tour thanks to America’s ‘greatest showman.’

Jenny Lind, the "Swedish Nightingale," became popular in America through heavy promotion by America's "Greatest Showman." Public Domain

At the age of 9, Johanna Maria Lind stood before a singing master for the Royal Theatre in Stockholm, Sweden. As the little girl sang, the teacher was brought to tears at the beauty of such a young voice. Lind was given a scholarship to become a student at the Royal Dramatic Theatre, where she was taught the elements of the opera―acting, dancing, and singing.

In 1833, approximately four years after that initial private performance, Lind performed in 22 theatrical performances. The now-teenage vocal prodigy was swiftly moving toward centerstage. In 1837, she was provided her first annual contract; but it was in 1838, performing one of the leading roles in Carl Maria von Weber’s “Der Freischütz” at the Royal Swedish Opera, that her star soared and she became “the declared favourite of the Swedish public.”

Royal Swedish Opera, Stockholm, where Lind sang some of her early roles. Frankie Fouganthin /CC BY-SA 4.0

Soon, though, she would be the darling of Europe.

A Curious Opportunity

While this Swedish teenager was making her name throughout her home country, a young American grocery store owner was presented with a curious offer. Phineas Taylor Barnum was approached by a customer about a woman named Joice Heth, whom the customer claimed was 161 years old and had been “the nurse of George Washington.”

Printed handbill advertising Joice Heth. Public Domain

Instantly intrigued, Barnum rushed to the Masonic Hall in Philadelphia where Heth was being exhibited. When he saw her, he thought from her appearance that “she might almost as well have been called a thousand years old as any other age.” A thousand was also the asking price of Heth by her owner, R.W. Lindsay. Barnum, who only had $500, sold his interest in the grocery store, returned and purchased Heth. It was the beginning of his peculiar profession as the “Prince of Humbugs.”

Claiming that Heth was born on the Island of Madagascar in 1674, Barnum’s advertisement purported that she “was the slave of Augustine Washington (the father of Gen. Washington) and was the first who put clothes on the unconscious infant who in after days led our heroic fathers on to glory, to victory and freedom. To use her own language when speaking of the illustrious Father of his country, ‘she raised him.’”

The absurdity of such a claim, or “humbug,” seems preposterous; nonetheless, the wild claims brought crowds and revenue, and ushered in the beginning of Barnum’s collection of curiosities that would go on to captivate the country and the world.

Photo of Phineas Taylor "P. T." Barnum, 1851. Public Domain

Barnum had a keen sense for how the bewildering could also be lucrative. In 1841, Barnum made another, much larger investment, and one that was stationary. For $12,000 (approximately $427,500 today), he bought the American Museum from Dr. John Scudder Jr.

The American Museum had opened in 1810, the year Barnum was born, as a location for scientific lectures and natural history exhibits. After the war of 1812 and a resulting economic downturn, the museum expanded its offerings to include musical performances and a collection of curiosities. Barnum’s purchase included retaining the curiosities. After a year of renovation, he reopened the museum as Barnum’s American Museum.

The Rising Swedish Star

On the other side of the Atlantic, Lind’s career was accelerating. In 1840, she was appointed as court singer by King Carl XIV Johan, and was also made a member of Sweden’s Royal Academy of Music. Fortunately, Lind studied under the renowned Manuel Patricio Rodríguez García at the Paris Conservatory. Not only was her singing perfected, but over the course of 11 months, it is believed that García saved her voice from permanent damage.

Jenny Lind dubbed the "Swedish Nightingale." Public Domain

In 1844, she was requested to sing for the coronation of Oscar I at Stockholm Cathedral. It was also the year the young soprano began touring outside of Sweden. Over the next several years, she performed in Germany, Austria, and England. She spent several months learning German for her Berlin performances. She sang the lead role for Vincenzo Bellini’s “Norma” in December 1844 at the Court Opera in Berlin. She followed this performance as Vielka, the lead role, in Giacomo Meyerbeer’s “Ein Feldlager in Schlesien.” During this time, she met Felix Mendelssohn, one of history’s great composers, and the two remained close until his untimely death in 1847.

After her Viennese debut in “Norma,” the audience was so enamored with her performance that she needed the escort of mounted police to leave the theater. By the time she arrived in London in April 1847, she was known to Europe as the “Swedish Nightingale.” It would prove to be a moniker most fitting. When she debuted at Her Majesty’s Theatre as Alice in Meyerbeer’s “Robert le Diable,” she, as one reviewer noted, exceeded expectations.

“It is impossible by language to convey any idea of what the voice of Jenny Lind really is, because it is so surpassingly beautiful—so superior to any other voice, uniting, as it does, the perfection of all voices, that there is no standard to which it can be compared,” the opera reviewer wrote. “It is, in fact, itself the standard.”

It was the beginning of a two-year career in London.

A Palace and a Retirement

As Lind had become Europe’s “Swedish Nightingale,” Barnum had become America’s “greatest showman.” His Barnum’s American Museum had become, and would remain for years to come, New York City’s biggest attraction, eventually boasting approximately 850,000 exhibits and curiosities. Barnum’s European tours also helped with his show’s popularity, as he toured Spain, France, and England in 1844, meeting with the royal families of each country.

His business life had become a portrait of curious extravagance, so why not his home life? What better way to display that curious extravagance than by mirroring the extravagance he encountered during his European tour? In 1846, inspired by King George IV’s Royal Pavilion, Barnum hired an architect to design plans for a Sino-Turkish palace that would result, after two years of construction, in his new Bridgeport, Connecticut mansion called the Iranistan. His home would double as an attraction, as people often visited the grounds and house. “The gates are constantly thrown open, and in pleasant weather visitors may, at almost any time, be seen driving, or promenading through the grounds of this earthly paradise,” the New York Herald reported.

Book engraving of Iranistan, P.T. Barnum's residence in Bridgeport, Conn., in 1848. Public Domain

This “Oriental Palace of America,“ with its November 1848 housewarming, was completed as Lind was preparing for her third season at Her Majesty’s Theatre, which would culminate in the “Last Operatic Performance of Mdlle. Jenny Lind” on May 10, 1849. It was after that performance that Lind announced her retirement. Queen Victoria, who was in attendance, gifted her ”with a gem-encrusted nightingale.”

As Europe celebrated the illustrious career of Lind, her name had hardly entered the American vocabulary. In 1849, she was an unknown in the United States. By 1850, that would change dramatically.

The Beginning of ‘Lindomania’

Barnum, aware of Lind’s retirement, dispatched an agent to Lind with an invitation. The image at the top of his stationery was of the Iranistan. The image piqued her interest, but it was the offer that convinced her to come to America. Unlike the many other post-retirement singing tour offers she had received, Barnum’s was most generous. Through negotiations, Barnum agreed to hire her conductor, composer, pianist, and 60-member orchestra, as well as pay for her and their first-class travel and expenses. Lind would receive $1,000 per performance (about $40,000 today). Lind agreed to Barnum’s offer, and signed an 18-month contract, which had the stipulation that either party had the power to end the contract early.

Barnum, as he was wont to do, immediately began advertising the arrival of the “Swedish Nightingale” to American shores. He did not merely market her vocal abilities and her standing as Europe’s biggest star, but also her philanthropic spirit, declaring that Lind “regards her high artistic powers as a gift from heaven, for the melioration of affliction and distress, and whose every thought and deed is philanthropy.”

P.T. Barnum's poster of Jenny Lind the Swedish Nightingale. From the collection of the University of Sheffield. Chemical Engineer /CC BY-SA 4.0

Barnum plastered American cities with consistent advertising, including a very clever gimmick in the New York Daily Tribune, in which he had written himself a letter under the guise as Lind’s composer, Julius Benedict. The letter stated that “Mlle. Lind is very anxious to give a Welcome to America in a kind of national song, which, if I can obtain the poetry of one of your first-rate literary men, I shall set to music, and which she will sing.” The work of Philadelphia poet, Bayard Taylor, was selected from among 700 submissions. The original musical number became a favorite of the tour.

By the time Lind’s ship sailed into New York Harbor on Sept. 1, 1850, Barnum’s advertising genius was on full display and “Lindomania” was in full swing. Approximately 30,000 to 40,000 people filled the harbor to welcome Lind. Her first performance was scheduled for Sept. 11 at the Castle Garden, preceded by the Great Jenny Lind Opening Concert Ticket Auction. The sold-out show was a prelude to the near 100 performances she was to give in more than 15 cities throughout the United States and Canada. She also performed in Havana, Cuba.

Castle Garden in New York was the venue for Jenny Lind's first performance in America. Public Domain

Barnum’s marketing paved the way for Lind’s arrivals throughout the country. Thousands thronged in whichever city Lind’s train stopped. The image of the “Swedish Nightingale” could be found almost anywhere, as merchants manufactured and sold “Jenny Lind cigars to Jenny Lind sewing stands, gloves, scarves, riding hats, and perfume.”

Love and Farewell

During the tour, Benedict returned to London and was replaced by Otto Goldschmidt, a former pupil of Mendelssohn. Lind and Goldschmidt had been fond of each other well before his arrival. As the tour neared its end, Goldschmidt, who was a Jew, converted and was baptized in December 1851. The two were married in Boston on Feb. 5, 1852. This romantic ending proved the American tour had been a success in more ways than one. In fact, Barnum ensured that the success profited Lind more than himself by renegotiating the contract early into the tour so that Lind could also receive profit shares from each performance.

The tour had generated approximately $700,000 (approximately $28 million today), with her final performance taking place on May 24, 1852 at Castle Ground. It was during this week in history that five days later, on May 29, 1852, Lind sailed from New York City back to Europe, having conquered the hearts of American music lovers.

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