On this day in 1887 opera singer, the “Swedish Nightingale”, Jenny Lind died at Wynd’s Point, Herefordshire, on the Malvern Hills near the British Camp, at the age of 67. Born Johanna Maria Lind on 6 October 1820 in Klara in central Stockholm. One of the most highly regarded singers of the 19th century, she performed in soprano roles in opera in Sweden and across Europe, and undertook an extraordinarily popular concert tour of America beginning in 1850. She was a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music from 1840.
Lind became famous after her performance in Der Freischütz in Sweden in 1838. She was in great demand in opera roles throughout Sweden and northern Europe during the 1840s, and was closely associated with Felix Mendelssohn. After two acclaimed seasons in London, she announced her retirement from opera at the age of 29.
In 1850, Lind went to America at the invitation of the showman P. T. Barnum. She gave 93 large-scale concerts for him and then continued to tour under her own management. She earned more than $350,000 from these concerts, donating the proceeds to charities, principally the endowment of free schools in Sweden. With her new husband, Otto Goldschmidt, she returned to Europe in 1852 where she had three children and gave occasional concerts over the next two decades, settling in England in 1855. From 1882, for some years, she was a professor of singing at the Royal College of Music in London.
in her retirement
The Final Footprint
Lind was interred in the Great Malvern Cemetery to the music of Chopin’s Funeral March.
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Lind is commemorated in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey, London under the name “Jenny Lind-Goldschmidt”. Among those present at the memorial’s unveiling ceremony on 20 April 1894 were Goldschmidt, members of the Royal Family, Sullivan, Sir George Grove and representatives of some of the charities supported by Lind. There is also a plaque commemorating Lind in The Boltons, Kensington, London and a blue plaque at 189 Old Brompton Road, London, SW7, which was erected in 1909.
Many artistic works have honoured or featured her. Anton Wallerstein composed the “Jenny Lind Polka” around 1850. In the 1930 Hollywood film A Lady’s Morals, Grace Moore starred as Lind, with Wallace Beery as Barnum. In 1941 Ilse Werner starred as Lind in the German-language musical biography film The Swedish Nightingale. In 2001, a semibiographical film, Hans Christian Andersen: My Life as a Fairytale, featured Flora Montgomery as Lind. A 2010 BBC television documentary “Chopin – The Women Behind the Music” includes discussion of Chopin’s last years, during which Lind “so affected” the composer.
On this day in 1950, playwright, Nobel Prize winner and Academy Award winner, George Bernard Shaw died at his home, Shaw’s Corner, in Hertfordshire, England at the age of 94. Born 26 July 1856 in Dublin, Ireland. Shaw is the only person to have been awarded both a Nobel and an Oscar. His play Pygmalion was adapted by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe into the musical My Fair Lady. In 1898, Shaw married Charlotte Payne-Townshend, whom he survived. Reportedly, the marriage was never consummated, at Charlotte’s insistence. Shaw reportedly had a number of affairs with married women.
The Final Footprint – Shaw was cremated and his cremains were mixed with those of his wife and they were scattered around the statue of Saint Joan in their garden.
Saint Joan
A bronze statue of Shaw was erected in his honor in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada.
#RIP #OTD in 1966 country blues singer (“Frankie”, “Spike Driver Blues”, “Avalon Blues”), guitarist, Mississippi John Hurt died of a heart attack, in hospital at Grenada, Mississippi aged 73. Saint James Cemetery, Avalon, Mississippi
On this day in 1975 poet, filmmaker, writer, journalist, novelist, playwright, artist, actor Pier Paolo Pasolini was murdered, run over by his car, on the beach at Ostia, Italy. Born in Bologna on 5 March 1922.
In my opinion, he is one of the defining public intellectuals in 20th-century Italy, influential both as an artist and a political figure. A controversial personality due to his straightforward style, Pasolini’s legacy remains contentious. Openly gay and an avowed Marxist, he voiced strong criticism of petty bourgeois values and the emerging consumerism in Italy, juxtaposing socio-political polemics with a critical examination of taboo sexual matters. A prominent protagonist of the Roman cultural scene of the post-war period, he was an established major figure in European literature and cinematic arts. Pasolini’s unsolved murder at Ostia during an altercation with a young male prostitute prompted an outcry in Italy, and its circumstances continue to be a matter of heated debate.
The Final Footprint – Cimitero di Casarsa Della Delizia
And on this day in 1996 singer and guitarist Eva Cassidy died from melanoma at her family’s home in Bowie, Maryland, at the age of 33. Born Eva Marie Cassidy on February 2, 1963, at the Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C.
Known for her interpretations of jazz, folk, and blues music, sung with a powerful, emotive soprano voice. In 1992, she released her first album, The Other Side, a set of duets with go-go musician Chuck Brown, followed by the 1996 live solo album titled Live at Blues Alley.
Two years after her death, Cassidy’s music was brought to the attention of British audiences, when her versions of “Fields of Gold” and “Over the Rainbow” were played by Mike Harding and Terry Wogan on BBC Radio 2. Following the overwhelming response, a camcorder recording of “Over the Rainbow”, taken at Blues Alley in Washington by her friend Bryan McCulley, was shown on BBC Two’s Top of the Pops 2. Shortly afterwards, the compilation album Songbird climbed to the top of the UK Albums Chart, almost three years after its initial release. The chart success in the United Kingdom and Ireland led to increased recognition worldwide. Her posthumously released recordings, including three number-one albums and one number-one single in the UK, have sold more than ten million copies. Her music has also charted within the top 10 in Australia, Germany, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.
The Final Footprint – Cremated remains scattered on the lake shores of St. Mary’s River Watershed Park, a nature reserve near Callaway, Marland
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