Jenny Lind

of the three sons the second abraham was destined to play a role in musical history true he was not himself a trained musician although he had very sensitive artistic instincts and he labored under a mild sense of inferiority which used to find expression in his whimsical phrase formerly i was the son of my father now i am the father of my son in any case he had not to endure anything like the paternal struggle and poverty of his boyhood not much is known but in his twenties he was sent to paris and worked for a time as cashier in the bank of m fould when he returned to germany he entered a banking business founded in berlin and hamburg by his brother joseph it was possibly on his trip home that he met his future wife leah salomon if marriages are made in heaven this match assuredly could boast a celestial origin leah salomon was an wholly unusual woman she came of a berlin family of wealth and position she was exquisitely sensitive and cultured and although she strictly limited her singing and playing to the home circle was a musician of gifts quite out of the ordinary moreover she drew was an accomplished linguist she even read homer in greek though only in the privacy of her boudoir lest any one suspect her of immodesty and dressed with studied simplicity among leah's elaborate virtues was her tireless devotion to her mother she kept house for her and granted her a substantial income small wonder that such a union was blessed with exceptional offspring of the four children of abraham and leah mendelssohn fanny cecile jacob ludwig felix and rebecca saw the light at hamburg in the order named the youngest paul came not long after the family had removed to it may not be inappropriate to call briefly into the picture at this point leah's brother jacob solomon bartledy if for no other reason than to account for a surname which formed an adjunct to part of the mendelssohn family including the composer salomon a distinguished art critic who spent his latter years in rome as prussian consul-general had embraced protestantism despite a traditional curse launched by his mother and adopted the name bartledee after the former proprietor of a garden belonging to the family a garden which subsequently passed into the hands of abraham mendelssohn it was solomon bartledee who at length persuaded his brother-in-law to procure for his children what heinrich heine had called a ticket of admission to european culture in short conversion to the christian faith to distinguish between the converted members of the family and those who clung to their old belief bartledee was henceforth affixed to mendelssohn in time abraham and leah followed their children into the lutheran faith leah adding to her own name those of felicia and paulina in allusion to her sons Felix was born on Friday, February 3, 1809, at 14 Gross-Michelis-Strasse, Hamburg.

Long afterwards, the place was marked by a commemorative tablet above the entrance, a tribute from Jenny Lind and her husband.

Curiously enough, the violinist Ferdinand David, Felix's friend and associate of later days, was born under the same roof, scarcely a year after.

hamburg became an unpleasant place during the occupation by napoleon's troops and in eighteen eleven soon after the birth of rebecca the family escaped in disguise to berlin where abraham at his own expense outfitted a company of volunteers the mendelssohns took up residence in a house belonging to the widow from it it was situated in what was then an attractive quarter of northeastern berlin on a street called the neue promenade that had houses on one side and a tree-bordered canal on the other it offered a spacious playground for the children and the singer edouard devrient recalled seeing felix play marbles or touch and run with his comrades abraham mendelssohn having severed the partnership with his brother started a banking business of his own which soon prospered famously somehow even the myriad cares of running a bank did not prevent the father from scrupulously overseeing the education of his sons and daughters If the young people were virtually bedded on roses, Abraham was of too strong a character, and indeed too much of a martinet, not to subject them to the discipline of a carefully ordered routine.

In 1839 he had corresponded with Pastor Schubring about a text, and he had even made rudimentary sketches for the music.

Other obligations crowded it out of his mind.

now six years later he returned to it he realized that the time was short but his heart was set on elijah although he was prudent enough to suggest some other work if the oratorio should by any chance strike a snag mendelssohn could write fast too fast perhaps for his artistic good still elijah was a heart-breaking assignment it is only just to say that he realized certain inadequacies of the first version and revised not a little of the score after hearing it his labors were complicated by the lengthy correspondence he was obliged to carry on with william bartholomew the translator mendelssohn insisted on a close adherence to the king james version of the bible with the result that the english words often conform neither to the accent nor the sense of the german originals the choice of a soprano offered another problem the composer wanted jenny lind whom he admired extravagantly he loved her f sharp and the note seems to have haunted his mind when he wrote the air hear ye israel but jenny lind was unavailable and he had to be satisfied with a maria caradori allen whom he disliked and whose singing he afterwards described as so pretty so pleasing so elegant and at the same time so flat so unintelligent so soulless that the music acquired a sort of amiable expression about which i could go mad be all of which as it may carradore allan was paid as much for singing in the first elijah as mendelssohn was for composing it the precious creature actually told him at a rehearsal that hear ye israel was not a lady's song and asked him to have it transposed and otherwise altered however the first performance in birmingham august twenty sixth eighteen forty six was a triumph for the composer though to be candid the uncritical adulation of the audience had settled the verdict in advance the report of mendelssohn's boyhood friend julius benedict is typical the noble town hall was crowded at an early hour of that forenoon with a brilliant and eagerly expectant audience every eye had long been directed toward the conductor's desk when at half-past eleven o'clock a deafening shout from the band and chorus announced the approach of the great composer the reception he met from the assembled thousands was absolutely overwhelming whilst the sun emerging at that moment seemed to illumine the vast edifice in honour of the bright and pure being who stood there the idol of the beholders It enhances one's respect for the artistic probity of Mendelssohn that he preserved his balance.

He evaluated his work critically, carefully modified or enlarged it and obliged Bartholomew to make a quantity of changes in the English text.

It's not somebody that anyone in America has ever heard of.

It's actually a singer called Jenny Lind.

She's from Sweden, right? And she's a big deal in Sweden.

She's a bit of a big deal in Europe.

He just knows she's a big deal.

He's just heard she's a really fucking big deal and she's incredible.

He's seen the pictures and he just decides, I'm all in on Jenny Lind.

He offers her $1,000 a night plus expenses.

After that I saw in the south the Palmetto states, Carolina and Georgia, and there I was enchanted by a luxuriance in the outward life of nature to which I had hitherto been a stranger.

Rose Cottage, Brooklyn, August 23rd, and Jenny Lind is actually on her way to America.

A terrific welcome awaits her.

She will be lucky if she escapes with her life.

The fame of her beneficence and her fine disposition, still more than that of her powers as a singer, have opened all hearts and all arms to her, and an angel from heaven is not as perfect as people imagine Jenny Lind to be, and would not be half so welcome.

The Americans are born enthusiasts, and I would be the last to reproach them for it.

No human being, and no nation either, can ever become anything great if they are not possessed of that overflowing power which finds its vent in enthusiasm.

They removed from that solitary farm in the forest to Chicago.

A famous party was given there in honor of Lafayette.

And years afterward, Barnum brought Jenny Lind over from Sweden to sing in Castle Garden.

People came from all over the country just to hear her sing and to walk on the Battery, which was the fashionable promenade in those days."

"Do they have parties in the round house now?"

"Marvelous parties,"

John Moon replied.

"Blue angelfishes, red-breasted sunfishes, telescope goldfishes, and rainbow trouts swim around the boxes and balconies where people used to sit and listen to Jenny Lind, while seals and sea lions, alligators and crocodiles, turtles and bullfrogs slip and slide and hop and glide over the old ballroom floor.

All the fishes and sea animals live in the round house now, and we call their palace the Aquarium."