Jenny Lind, an internationally acclaimed singing sensation, made an American tour in 1850 and 1851. Her only appearance in Indiana was on April 11, 1851, in Madison. The following details about that concert come from a variety of sources, specified below.
Program reconstructed from the Madison Daily Courier, April 10, 1851, p. 2.
Mademoiselle Jenny Lind's Grand Concert
in Madison, Friday Evening, April 11
Programme
Part IOVERTURE from Italiana in Algeri, by ROSSINI
DUETTO - "Voglio dire" (from L'Elisir d'Amore), by DONIZETTI
sung by Signori Salvi and BelettiARIA -- "I Know that my redeemer Liveth," (from Messiah), by HANDEL
sung by Mademoiselle Jenny LindCAVATINA - "Bella adorata" (from Il Giuramento), by MERCADANTE
sung by Signor SalviFOLK SONG - "Echo Song" (Norwegian folk song)
sung by Mademoiselle Jenny LindSCENA - "Ah non credae" and
ARIA - "An non guinge" (both from Sonnambula) by BELLINI
sung by Mademoiselle Jenny Lind----------------
Part II
OVERTURE from Die Felsenmuhle, by REISSIGER
DUETTO - "Per Piacer alla Signori" (from Il Turco in Italia), by ROSSINI
sung by Mademoiselle Jenny Lind and Signore BellettiIRISH BALLAD - "The Last Rose of Summer"
sung by Mademoiselle Jenny LindROMANZA - "Spirito ande l'alma" (from La Favorita), by DONIZETTI
sung by Signor SalviBIRD SONG, by TAUBERT
sung by Mademoiselle Jenny LindBARCAROLE - "Sulla poppa del mio brik" (from La Prigioni Edinburgo), by RICCI
sung by Signor BellettiHOME SWEET HOME, by BISHOP
sung by Mademoiselle Jenny Lind
Conductor, Mr. Julius Benedict A first class ORCHESTRA, comprising the best talent of New York City, led by Mr. Joseph Burke, and under the direction of Julius Benedict, Esq., has been engaged.
Every seat in the hall has been numbered, for which corresponding checks will be issued.
The splendid Piano Forte, to be used on this occasion, is from the Wareroom of Payne & Webster.
Doors open at 7 o'clock. Concert will commence precisely at 8 o'clock.
Translation of Lyrics for Norwegian Echo Song from W. S. Rockstro, Jenny Lind (1894)
Come hither, come hither, come hither!
Hoah, hoah, hoah!
Come cow, come calf and weanling brood
Come all my cattle dear!
And the smith come forth
With hammer and tongs
To put the brand on the animal
For so will have it the Sheriff done.
Hoah, hoah, hoah!
Come all ye my poor dear!
The sun is setting behind the hills
And shadows are lengthening,
The night will soon close in
And hold us in its lap.
The pot is on the fire
And to the Alp I wend my way[Here Jenny Lind "turned from the Pianoforte towards the audience, facing it, and singing straight towards the length of the Room (having in view the production of the Echo) until the final notes, when she slowly turned back towards the Pianoforte, and struck the Chord of D to the same note in the voice part."]
Hoah, Hoah, hoah, hoah, trr-ho, ho. Ah-ah-ah-ah.
Jenny Lind tried to explain how she achieved the special effects of this song, but "the process was so purely subjective that she said it was almost impossible to describe it in words. The effect produced so nearly resembled that of a natural echo, reverberated from the opposite wall, that it never failed to mystify an audience before which it was presented for the first time."
Lyrics for "The Last Rose of Summer" from Farewell Songs of Jenny Lind in America (sheet music)
'Tis the last rose of summer,
Left blooming alone,
All her lovely companions are faded and gone,
No flow'r of her kindred
No rosebud is night,
To reflect back her blushes,
Or give sigh for sigh!
I'll not leave thee, thou lone one,
To pine on the stem;
Since the lovely are sleeping,
Go sleep thou with them;
Thus kindly I scatter
Thy leaves o'er the bed
Where thy mates of the garden
Lie scentless and dead.So soon may I follow When friendships decay,
And from Love's shining circle
The gems drop away!
When true hearts lie withered
And fond ones are flown
Oh! Who would inhabit
This bleak world alone?Lyrics for "Bird Song"
from Charles Rosenberg's Jenny Lind in America (1851)Birdling! Why sing in the forest wide?
Say why! say why!
Call'st thou the Bridegroom or the Bride?
And why? and why?
"I call no Bridegroom - call no Bride,
Although I sing in forest wide,
Nor know I why I'm singing."
Birdling ! Why is thy heart so blest?
Oh say! oh say!
Musie o'erflowing from this breast?
Oh say! oh say!
"My heart is full, and yet is light.
My heart is glad in day or night,
Nor know I why I'm singing."Birdling! Why sing you all the day? Oh tell! oh tell!
Do any listen to thy lay?
Oh tell! oh tell!
"I care not what my song may be,
Now this, now that, I warble free,
Nor know, yet must be singing."
Charles Rosenberg reported on the first time Jenny Lind sang Bird Song,, which was in Boston in 1850. It "had been composed for her by Taubert, and the words of which I had recently translated for her from the German. The melody of this air is so unaffectedly simple and delicious, that it at once riveted itself in public favor, and has gradually deprived even the Echo Song of its first place as a favorite. Indeed, of all the slighter melodies which she is in the habit of giving at her concerts, I am inclined to rank this one both as the best and the most effective with the audience."
"Home Sweet Home" Lyrics
from sheet music published in 1914
'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home;
A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there,
Which, seek thro' the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere.
Home, home, sweet, sweet home; there's no place like home
Oh, there's no place like home.I gaze on the moon as I tread the drear wild,
And feel that my mother now thinks of her child
As she looks on that moon from our own cottage door
Thro' the woodbine whose fragrance shall cheer me no more.
Home, home, sweet, sweet home, etc.An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain;
Oh, give me my lowly thatched cottage again;
The birds, singing gaily, that came at my call;
Give me them, and that peace of mind, dearer than all.
Home, home, sweet, sweet home, etc.
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