From Mr. Barnum:
P.T. Barnum was a showman, entrepreneur, politician and most of all, promoter of the unique and divine. One of the biggest accomplishments of his career, his discovery of and promotion of the “Swedish Nightingale,” Jenny Lind. The public is invited to an afternoon of historical fun and music on Sunday, June 11th at 2:00PM at the Barnum Museum, as Executive Director Kathleen Maher brings to life, “P.T. Barnum Presents the Divine Jenny Lind.”
Maher will highlight the amazing story of one of the most successful musical collaborations in history. You will hear how P.T. Barnum made a musical and cultural sensation of singer Lind, whom he paid an unprecedented thousand dollars a night, close to $30,000 in today’s dollars, to tour America in the early 1850s. The “Swedish Nightingale” was then unknown in the United States, but thanks to Barnum’s promotion, the singer, lauded for her wholesomeness and devotion to charity as well as her operatic voice, became the hottest ticket anywhere. Maher’s presentation of the Jenny Lind/Barnum story will also include musical interludes that engage the senses and embraces the melodic sounds of a Jenny Lind performance.The Swedish opera singer, one of the most highly regarded singers of the 19th century, performed in soprano roles in opera in Sweden and across Europe, and undertook the extraordinarily popular concert tour of America beginning in 1850 with Barnum. Barnum’s advance publicity made her a celebrity even before she arrived in the U.S., and she received a wild reception on arriving in New York. Tickets for some of her concerts were in such demand that Barnum sold them by auction. The enthusiasm of the public was so strong that the American press coined the term “Lind Mania.” She gave 93 large-scale concerts for him, donating the proceeds to charities, principally the endowment of free schools in Sweden.
For more information about this and other events, please contact The Barnum Museum at (203) 331-1104 x100.
