Opera on the Move in the Nordic Countries during the Long 19th ...

Jenny Lind’s vocal strain
Her remarkable musical mind, and, for her age, that, rare artistic education
has brought her considerable attention in the various circles in which
she has been heard, supervised by the teacher Mr Berg. Her memory
and her ear are perfect, and her comprehension is quick: One would be
amazed and moved by her singing. She can go through the most difficult
and artistic musical passages without being confused […]. If this young
genius does not suddenly mature prematurely, we should to expect an
operatic artist of high order. 5
Heimdall delivered its opinion about Jenny’s musical talents several times
that year; in December it proclaimed: “The young student Jenny Lind has,
though much younger [than Mathilda Ficker], a much clearer and more
ringing voice.” 6 This was part of a review of a concert that took place on
the 24 th of November 1832. The concert placard announced that said Jenny
was a student at the Theatre’s singing school (KTA L1A, Daily posters,
24 November 1832). This might indicate that it had already been decided
that she would end up on the operatic stage. In any case there were high
hopes for her singing career. But over the next few years, Jenny’s voice
declined. The first Jenny Lind biographer, Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer (1845),
claimed that Jenny’s beautiful high tones disappeared at the age of 12, and
her voice became weak and poor (Birch-Pfeiffer, 1845). However, several
other writers, including Holland and Rockstro, argued that this decline took
place later, sometime during her sixteenth and seventeenth years (Holland
& Rockstro 1891, part 1, p 47). In the very earliest reviews from Heimdall,
from 1832, there is no suggestion at all that Jenny’s voice had any defect or
sounded weak. The journal praised both her musical talents and her voice.
The first time any suggestion of Jenny’s weakening voice turns up is in
February of 1836, when she played her first big opera character, Georgette,
in Frondörerna by Adolf Fredrik Lindblad (1801–1878) on the 10 th of February
that year. The opera had been performed the previous year, with Mathilda
Ficker as Georgette. Lindblad wrote to his friend Malla Silfverstople:
“Little Jenny Lind, who played in Mathilda Ficker’s place, has supported the
5 Heimdall , 24 April 1832: ”Hennes högst märkvärdiga musikaliska sinne och den för
hennes år icke mindre sällsynta konst-utbildning hafva också väckt stort uppseende i
de enskilda kretsar, der hon låtit höra sig, handledd af sin lärare, Hr Berg. Minnet är
lika fullkomligt, som örat är säkert, och fattningsförmågan lika snabb, som djup: man
på en gång förundras och röres af hennes sång. Hon kan genomgå pröfningen i de
svåraste solfeger och de konstrikaste satser, utan att förvillas[…] Om detta unga snille
ej brådmognar, eller genom någon yttre tillfällighet går förloradt, bör man ha allt skäl att
vänta sig, ehuru ty värr [sic] i en aflägsen framtid, en opera-sujett af hög ordning.”
6 Heimdall, 1 December 1832: ”Den unga eleven Jenny Lind har, ehuru mycket yngre
[än Mathilda Ficker] en klarare och mera klingande stämma.”
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