The House of Jenny Lind

Known as The Swedish Nighingale, Jenny Lind was one of the most famous and successful opera singers of the Victorian era.

She was discovered by a maid of Mademoiselle Lundburg, principal dancer of the Royal Swedish Opera who heard her singing one day aged 8, and brought her mistress to hear. Lundburg helped Jenny get a place at the Swedish Royal Dramatic Theatre. By 10 years old, she was performing on stage.

She became a big star in Europe. In 1843, on a tour of Denmark, she met Hans Christian Andersen. Hans fell in love with her but she did not fall in love with him. They stayed friends and he wrote three fairy tales for her: Beneath the Pillar, The Angel and The Nightingale.

Other admirers were the composers Robert Schumann, Hector Berlioz, Frédéric Chopin and Felix Mendelssohn. Chopin and Mendelssohn were probably her lovers too, although no records exist to prove that.

She announced her retirement from full opera performances at age 29, in 1849, but she continued to sing in her own concerts.

In 1850, she went to America at the invitation of the showman P.T. Barnham and performed over 100 concerts. With the money from this tour she funded free schools in her native Sweden.

She moved in England in 1855 and became Professor of Singing at the Royal College of Music.

She retired and moved out of the house in this picture to live near Great Malvern in Hertfordshire.

No recordings of her voice exist.