The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-05-19

contemporaries. Jenny Lind would
have shared this general fate were. it
not that her remarkable personality
made such an indelible impression upon
the people of all classes in Europe and
America-upon the tOne-deaf, like
Dean Stanley, as well as upon must
clans like Aieyerbeer-that these i'm
preSsions have been recorded in the
memories of every noteworthy person
who knew her, from Victoria, Mendel-
sshon, Sonntag, Schumann, Andersen,
ThOrwaldsen, G. W. Curtis, down to p.
T. Barnum.
As a child Of she initiated upon the
piano the fanfare Of the street buglers;
and through her girlhOod the super
abundance of music in her found ex-
preston in every step and bound that
her restless feet made. Until years
old she had no more appreciative audi
ence than her blue-ribbOned cat, TO
which she sang by the hour till the
wonder of her childish voice attracted
the attention of an actress boarding in
the neighborhoOd. Jenny Lind s
mother, a gOyernesS embittered by her
hard struggles to support husband and
children, was with difficulty persuaded
by this actress to subordinate her
burgher prejudices to the future of the
child and consent to having the little
girls voice tested at the Royal theatre.
Jenny Lind describes herself at that
time as "a small, ugly, brOad-nosed,
shy, gauche. undergrOwn girl" yet the
rare promise in her voice cast her
awkwardness so entirely in the back
ground that the head of the theatre
agreed to take the 9-year-old child
and educate her at the government eX-
pense for the next ten years.
The "actress-pupil Lind found this
theatrical training always invaluable
to her. Her position, however, was by
no means d sinecure. and her efforts
to make restitution for the drill and
expense bestowed upon her would have
broken down a less rugged constitu-
ton. At 10 she played the part of An
gela in "The Polish Nine" at Is she
appeared in twenty-five performances;
but not until she was II, after having
appeared on the stage Ill times for
her board and clothes, did the directors
decide to allow her a small salary for
her services.
That year she played ninety-two
times in twelve new characters. chiefly
among which was Agatha in Weber s
Der Freischutz." In this she practi-
cally made her debut and awoke to the
knowledge of the great dramatic gift
which God had intrusted to her. This
date. March Z, she celebrated each year
( thereafter as a second birthday. In a
somewhat different wording than that
employed by Byron she expressed the
same idea Of a famous awaking:
got up that morning one creature; |
went to bed another creature. I had
found my power" Soon afterward she
was made a member of the Royal
Swedish Academy of Music, and re-
ceived the appointment Of court singer.
Within a few years she earned enough
money from provincial tours to enable
her to go to Paris for the study Of
/ technique
Her career thenceforth was a Won
derful exposition of Disraeli's theory
that patience Is the necessary inSredi-
ent of genius. Once before, as child
of IA, her voice threatened for some
I time to leave her. and had she not
patiently striven at these critical times
to recover it it is probable that her
genius might quickly have degener-
ated into mediocrity. Her voice was
not naturally flexible yet by means of
her inexhaustible perseverance she
/ became enabled so skillfuliy to blend
! the various registers that the most
critical ear failed to discover their
/ points of junction" By practice, too,
| she attained the power of rapid exc
/ cution, not as natural to her as the
j richer sustaining power of her notes.
/ She would practice alone for hours on
! the correct enunciation of some words
/ difficult to pronounce on a high note
without the grimacing she detested;
and by practice she also learned to re-
4 fill her lungs with such dexterity that
4 the renewal of her breath was i'm
! possible OF detection. She took the
i greatest care of her voice, never dane
+! ing or drinking wine, tea or coffee. Her
conscientiOusness was due to her feel
ing each morning that her voice was
a gift from God, and that perhaps thai
very day might be the last of its use.
After having mastered the details o.
technique so that she might give hel
| dramatic and spiritual nature full play
unhampered by the mechanics Of art