« Nightingale Opus 24 »
MUSICAL DRAMA IN SIX ACTS FOR SOPRANO AND PIANO
by Cecilia and Jens Jorgensen
The drama captures Chopin and Jenny Lind’s romance in 1848-1849.
It was a real-life tragic replay of The Nightingale story written in 1843
by Hans Christian Andersen as a tribute to Jenny Lind.
CAST
Frédéric Chopin, composer: the Chinese emperor
Jenny Lind, soprano: the nightingale
Delfina Potocka, soprano: the artificial bird
MUSIC OF THE DRAMA[1]
Chopin’s Fantaisie-Impromptu, Op. 66
Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi (atto I).
Isak Berg (Stockholm)’s Herdegossen (The Herdsman’s song)
Norwegian echo song
Chopin’s ______
Chopin’s ______
La Beauté (duet), inspired by Chopin’s Mazurka in G major Op. 67 N° 42
Bellini’s La Sonnambula, Scena ed Aria Finale
Nocturne ______by Chopin
Chopin’s Mazurka in A flat, Op. 24, N° 3
The six acts are situated in London, Edinburgh and Paris: (i) Coup-de-foudre; (ii) Magnolias; (iii) Proposal; (iv) Hope; (v) Death; and (vi) Love.
ACT 1: COUP-DE-FOUDRE
Setting: The home of Mrs Grote’s, London, 2 May 1848.
Chopin arrived in London on the 20th of April 1848 from Paris, invited by two Scottish sisters, Jane Stirling and Mrs Erskine. Coincidentally, Jenny Lind came the day after from Stockholm. Her premiere as Amina in Bellini’s opera La Sonnambula is set for the 4th of May. Queen Victoria had selected this particular opera to make her first appearance for the season. There was an enormous rush for tickets. Chopin is told that his only chance to get a ticket would be to call Mrs Grote, Jenny Lind's protector and an earlier acquaintance of his from Paris. Mrs Grote is delighted to hear from Chopin, and she immediately asks him to come over for dinner. She also invites Jenny Lind.
CHOPIN IN A LETTER OF 19 AUGUST 1848
“I did not know about it having just arrived”.
“… she invited only us two”.
“She is not pretty, but pleasant-looking at home”.
“We did not leave the piano from nine till one in the night”.
THE NIGHTINGALE STORY
“What!”, cried the Chinese emperor, “A nightingale; I have never heard about it”.
“I would never have imagined it like that! How plain it looks!”
“It is my pleasure to summon you to sing at a gala evening at the Court tonight”.
“The nightingale sang so sweetly that tears came into the emperor's eyes”.
MUSIC
Piano: Chopin’s Fantaisie-Impromptu, Op. 66.
Soprano, piano: Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi (atto I).
ACT 2: MAGNOLIAS
Setting: Clairville Cottage, Brompton, 12 May 1848.
In London, Jenny Lind had since 1847 rented Clairville Cottage, a beautiful cottage with thatched roof situated near Brompton Road. She had it chosen for its seclusion and beautiful magnolias. Chopin pays her a visit just a week after the premiere of La Sonnambula. There is a piano in the house.
CHOPIN IN LETTERS OF 11 AND 13 MAY AND 19 AUGUST 1848
“Yesterday I was at a dinner with J. Lind, who afterwards sang me Swedish things till midnight”.
“Her singing is pure and sure, but what I admired most was her piano”.
“… she cannot show herself anywhere without people turning their opera glasses on her”.
THE NIGHTINGALE STORY
“The whole town talked about this remarkable bird, and when two people met, one would say nothing but ‘Night-!’ and the other would say ‘gale!’ – and they would sigh and understand each other”.
MUSIC
Soprano, piano: Isak Berg (Stockholm)’s Herdegossen (The Herdsman’s song).
Soprano, piano: Norwegian echo song.
ACT 3: PROPOSAL
Setting: Calder House, Edinburgh, 30 October 1848.
Chopin and Jenny Lind continue to see each other in London. After a successful season, Jenny Lind starts in August 1848 her regional tour of England and Scotland. At the same time, Chopin accepts an invitation by the Scottish sisters to visit their relatives in Scotland. The weather there is bad for his poor health. The itineraries of Chopin and Jenny Lind cross frequently, and their secret meetings give him strength. He writes on the 3rd of October: “I am better ... Jenny Lind and Mrs Grote have been here”. During months of trailing around Scottish castles, Chopin receives many letters from Jenny Lind. She apparently wants to get married. He writes from the damp Calder House near Edinburgh to his friend Grzymala:
CHOPIN IN A LETTER OF 30 OCTOBER 1848
“Every day I get letters ... and wherever I go, they come after me”.
“Even if I could fall in love with someone… still I would not marry”.
THE NIGHTINGALE STORY
“The emperor was so happy that he invited the nightingale to wear his gold slipper round her neck.”
“The nightingale declined. It had already been well rewarded. ‘I have seen tears the emperors’ eyes, and I treasure that more than anything’.”
MUSIC
Piano: ______by Chopin (something melancholic and not too fast)
Piano: ______by Chopin (something melancholic and not too fast)
ACT 4: HOPE
Setting: Chopin's home at 74 Rue de Chaillot, Paris, early June 1849.
Chopin left Scotland the next day. He gave a concert at Guildhall in London on the 16th of November 1848 for Polish compatriots, and returned to Paris two weeks later. By early April 1849, he has seen four doctors. He is looking forward to the “spring sunshine”. Jenny Lind arrives in Paris on the 16th of May 1849. Together they take drives in the Bois de Boulogne. Jenny Lind visits Chopin one evening at Rue de Chaillot. Several of his friends are also here including Delfina Potocka, the Polish opera singer, Baroness Betty de Rothschild, and probably Pauline Viardot, the Spanish soprano, Delacroix, the painter, and Franchomme, the cellist.
CHOPIN IN A LETTER OF 18 JUNE 1849
“Miss Lind came, she sang one evening at my place”.
”Pani Pot and Rotsch were there”.
“I am stronger, for I have been eating and I have dropped the medicaments; but I gasp and cough just the same, only I bear it better.”
THE NIGHTINGALE STORY
“… the nightingale had come to sing hope and comfort to him”.
“One day a large parcel arrived for the emperor; the word Nightingale was written on it ... in it was an artificial nightingale adorned with diamonds and rubins”.
“Now they must sing together! What a duet it will be!”
MUSIC
Soprano duet, piano: La Beauté, inspired by Chopin’s Mazurka in G major Op. 67 N° 42 (and arranged by Pauline Viardot).
ACT 5: DEATH
Setting: Chopin's new home at 12 Place Vendôme, 15 October 1849.
A cholera outbreak and political unrest force Jenny Lind to flee Paris on the 13th of June 1849, leaving Chopin behind. Before departing, Jenny Lind arranges for an anonymous donation of 25,000 francs to be delivered in a parcel to Chopin (the parcel was surrounded by a symbolism, Sonnambula). He prays to God “for things to come right”; but his health deteriorates rapidly. We are now in Chopin’s new apartment at Place Vendôme. Delfina Potocka arrives on 15 October 1849. Chopin insists that she sing an aria of Bellini’s “and nothing else”.
CHOPIN IN AN UNDATED NOTE
“As this cough will choke me, I implore you to have my body opened, so that I may not be buried alive”.
THE NIGHTINGALE STORY
“Nobody had noticed that it had flown out through the open window”.
“The Chinese emperor lay cold and pale in his large and splendid bed.”
“The moon shone in upon the emperor and the artificial bird.”
“He could hardly breathe; there seemed to be something on his chest.”
“He saw it was Death sitting there, wearing the emperor’s golden crown.”
MUSIC
Soprano, piano: Bellini’s La Sonnambula, Scena ed Aria Finale.
ACT 6: LOVE
Setting: Buckingham Palace, London, 30 May 1856.
Jenny Lind broke the magic of The Nightingale story that her friend Hans Christian Andersen had written in 1843 as a tribute to her – the woman he loved, but never could get. When she sang, Chopin felt better. Then she left him for never to see him again. When the ‘artificial bird’ sang, Chopin died – on the 17th of October 1849.
To cope with her grief, she embarked in September 1850 on a concert tour of the United States to raise funds for cultural and humanitarian purposes. In 1852, she married Otto Goldschmidt, her accompanier. From 1855 onwards, she often performed a Recueil de Mazourkas “set to Italian words”, all works by Chopin – as if to revive the magic of the nightingale and the symbolism of Bellini’s music. This evening, the 30th of May 1856, she performs at Buckingham Palace for the royal family. We have here at hand a copy of the original musical programme that also includes a Nocturne by Chopin.
JENNY LIND SINGING
“Oh hope coming from the sky, faithful love will never die…”.
“… the sweet faithful love that will never die!”
THE NIGHTINGALE STORY
“Suddenly there came through the open window the sound of sweet music”.
“I saw tears in your eyes the first time I sang, and for that I’ll never forget you!”
MUSIC
Piano: A nocturne by Chopin ______.
Soprano, piano: Chopin’s Mazurka in A flat, Op. 24, N° 3, set to Italian words.
****
SOURCES
The biography « CHOPIN and The Swedish Nightingale » written by Cecilia and Jens Jorgensen and published in 2003 by Icons of Europe asbl (ref. Chopin’s quotes from letters translated by Opieński and Voynich (1932) – ref. the details specified in the appendix to the above biography.
Excerpts of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Nightingale (1843), translated from Danish into English by Icons of Europe.
Jenny Lind biographies including a musical appendix with songs embellished by her, and a musical programme from her performance at Buckingham Palace on 30 May 1856.
Jenny Lind in London; lithograph after H. Leloir. “Facing the audience and singing, she sounds the A on the piano to produce an echo effect.”
Image on the cover page provided by The Frederick Chopin Society in Warsaw: Oil painting by Teofil Kwiatkowski (1809-1891), 1849-1850 or later. Chopin sits on a canopied bed. Next to him stands Princess Marcelina Czartoryska; to the right sits Count Wojciech Grzymala, and behind him stands Teofil Kwiatkowski. To the left stands Father Aleksander Jelowiecki behind Chopin’s sister Ludwika Jedrzejewiczowa.
HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN
The son of a poor shoemaker in Odense, Denmark, he became one of the world's great storytellers (1805-1875). Jenny Lind never returned his love for her, but they remained good friends: “ … because she can never be mine … though her voice stays with me, forever, in my story The Nightingale”. To get relief for her grief over Chopin, she wrote to Andersen on 23 November 1871: “… Yes, I gave too much of myself to my art; it nearly took my life; but I would have been happy to die for this my first and last, deepest, purest love …” [sic Italic].
VINCENZO BELLINI
Born in Catania, Italy, Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835) is best known for the operas La Sonnambula and Norma. He became in 1832 a good friend of Chopin’s, who at the time was shocked by his premature death. In 1848-1849, Bellini’s music bound Chopin and Jenny Lind so closely together that Chopin asked to be buried next to Bellini at Cimétière du Père Lachaise in Paris.
The concept and details of the musical drama:
Copyright © 2003 Icons of Europe asbl, Brussels. All rights reserved.
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30 September 2003
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[1] This musical programme is tentative and may adapted to any particular event or medium
(e.g. an aria from Bellini’s Beatrice di Tenda, Cadenza A, could be song in act 5)