Rockstro, W. S. (William Smyth)
"Jenny Lind the artist, 1820–1851" by Henry Scott Holland and W. S. Rockstro is a biography written in the late 19th century. It traces the Swedish soprano Jenny Lind’s artistic formation and meteoric career from child protégée to international icon, drawing on original documents gathered by Otto Goldschmidt. The work highlights her operatic mastery, her singular dramatic presence, her turn toward sacred oratorio, and the esteem she earned from Europe’s foremost musicians.The opening of the book explains that this is an abridged memoir intended to reach a wider public while preserving a vivid portrait of Lind’s character and art. The introduction argues that English memories of her London triumphs capture only a fragment of her stature, emphasizing her earlier Scandinavian and German acclaim and the devotion of leading artists—culminating in Mendelssohn shaping parts of Elijah to her voice. It then sketches her early hardships and love of the countryside, the religious influence of her grandmother, and the pivotal discovery of her talent when a dancer from the Royal Opera arranged an audition that won her a place at the Royal Theatre’s school. Her pupilage combines broad cultural education with rigorous stage training, alongside strains at home that briefly drove her to seek refuge with the school’s superintendent. At the start of her career, she astonishes Stockholm audiences less by vocal power than by precocious dramatic truth in child roles, while early concert appearance…
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