A Hatful of Pearls

Jenny Lind received plenty of compliments, and few singers deserved them more. Some admirers, however, praised her so extravagantly that she loved to tease them when she got the chance.

Luigi Lablache, the famous bass, heard her for the first time and, in search of the strongest compliment he could find, declared that ‘every note was a pearl.’

Not long afterward, the two were together at a rehearsal. Lind asked to borrow Lablache’s hat. He handed it over politely, though he couldn’t imagine why she wanted it.

She walked a little way across the stage, lifted the rim of the hat to her lips, and sang a few flowing phrases into it. Then she returned and commanded him to kneel and accept a ‘royal gift.’ With the singer’s whim there was nothing to do but obey.

Smiling, she explained that she was granting him untold riches—because, by his own words, she was presenting him with a hatful of pearls.