Previous posts for October 6th are here: Karol Szymanowski; Jenny Lind (2019), Paul Badura-Skoda; Oscar Sonneck (2020), Jenny Lind (2021), and William Batchelder Bradbury (2022)
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Jenny Lind "The Swedish Nightingale" (6 October 1820 – 2 November 1887) was a Swedish singer who became so famous that her name is still a synonymous with "opera singer".
A Means to an End
Barnum's Grand Scientific and Musical Theater was a platform to promote hoaxes and human curiosities such as the Fiji mermaid and General Tom thumb. In 1850, he promoted the American tour of Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind. She earned more than $350,000 (equivalent to $12,311,600 in 2022) from these concerts, donating the proceeds to charities– adapted from Wikipedia, s.v. “P. T. Barnum“ and “Jenny Lind”
Perhaps it’s true we’ll never know
What simple folks who chose to go
To hear her at the Barnum show
Thought about the act they saw,
For though she was his biggest draw,
She didn’t have the shock and awe
Of others in the Barnum stable.
And yet seems, (it’s not a fable)
The Swedish Nightingale was able
To polish up the Barnum label.
One would have thought the chance was slim,
That Jenny Lind, so pure and prim,
Would parley with a man like him.
But as it’s said, we sink or swim,
And Jenny Lind, petite and trim,
Filled P. T.‘s concerts to the brim.
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