P.S.—­I heard the other evening Mdlle.  Lind in La Sonnambula. [Footnote:  Jenny Lind made her first appearance at Her Majesty’s Theatre in the season 1848, on May 4, as Amina, in La Sonnambula.  The Queen was present on that occasion.  Pauline Garcia made her first appearance, likewise as Amina, at Covent Garden Theatre, on May 9.] It was very fine; I have made her acquaintance.  Madame Viardot also came to see me.  She will make her debuts at the rival theatre [Covent Garden], likewise in La Sonnambula.  All the pianists of Paris are here.  Prudent played his Concerto at the Philharmonic with little success, for it is necessary to play classical music there.  Thalberg is engaged for twelve concerts at the theatre where Lind is [Her Majesty’s, Haymarket].  Halle is going to play Mendelssohn at the rival theatre.

  Chopin to his friend Grzymala; Thursday, May 11, 1848:—­

I have just come from the Italian Opera, where Jenny Lind appeared to-day, for the first time, as Sonnambula, and the Queen showed herself for the first time to the people after a long retirement. [Footnote:  Chopin must have begun this letter on the 4th of May, and dated it later on; for on the 11th of May Jenny Lind sang in La Figlia del Reggimento, and the presence of the Queen at the performance is not mentioned in the newspaper accounts of it.  See preceding foot-note.] Both were, of course, of much interest to me; more especially, however, Wellington, who, like an old, faithful dog in a cottage, sat in the box below his crowned mistress.  I have also made Jenny Lind’s personal acquaintance:  when, a few days afterwards, I paid her a visit, she received me in the most amiable manner, and sent me an excellent “stall” for the opera performance.  I was capitally seated and heard excellently.  This Swede is indeed an original from top to toe!  She does not show herself in the ordinary light, but in the magic rays of an aurora borealis.  Her singing is infallibly pure and sure; but what I admired most was her piano, which has an indescribable charm.  “Your

Frederick.

Of Chopin’s visit Jenny Lind-Goldschmidt had to the last years of her life a most pleasing and vivid recollection.  She sang to him Polskas, [footnote:  Polskas are dances of Polish origin, popular in Sweden, whose introduction dates from the time of the union of the crowns of Sweden and Poland in 1587.] which delighted him greatly.  The way Madame Goldschmidt spoke of Chopin showed unmistakably that he made the best possible impression upon her, not only as an artist, but also as a man—­she was sure of his goodness, and that he could not but have been right in the Sand affair, I mean as regards the rupture.  She visited him when she went in the following year (1849) to Paris.

In his letter to Gutmann, Chopin speaks of his intention to give a matinee at a private house.  And he more than realised it; for he not only gave one, but two—­the first at the house of Mrs. Sartoris (nee Adelaide Kemble) and the second at the house of Lord Falmouth.  Here are two advertisements which appeared in the Times.