Jenny Lind’s First Engagement

Jenny Lind was famous not only for her voice but for a temperament that stayed sweet and generous even when life got difficult. Her marriage to Otto Goldschmidt—whom she met on her American tour in 1851—is well known. At that time she was under P. T. Barnum’s management, and Goldschmidt served as the company’s pianist.

Less known is how close she came to marrying someone far less compatible. Not long before her trip she became engaged to Claudius Harris, an officer in the English army. He was intensely religious and strongly bigoted. He pressed her to leave the stage; his family even thought she could do no better than spend the rest of her life ‘atoning’ for her theatrical career.

Lind was eventually persuaded and gave six farewell operatic performances. At the time no one assumed it would be a permanent goodbye to opera—yet it turned out to be.

When it came to wedding arrangements, Harris demanded that the marriage contract include a promise that she would never return to the operatic stage. He also objected to her having full control of her earnings, calling it ‘unscriptural.’ The engagement nearly collapsed. Harris frightened her with threats of torment here and hereafter if she broke her word.

They reconciled, and she sat at the piano singing to him—but when she turned around, she found him asleep. Over time Harris became more and more repugnant to her, and the engagement was broken off. Not long afterward she met Goldschmidt, a worthier partner, and married him in 1852 after a year’s acquaintance.