LIND

Johanna Maria Lind 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. She became famous after her performance in Der Freischütz in Sweden 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. Her husband Otto Goldschmidt made an endowment of an infirmary for children in her honour in Norwich. It is perpetuated in its present form as the Jenny Lind Children's Hospital of the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital. There is a Jenny Lind Park in the same city.