User:Softlavender/Lind

Felix Mendelssohn

His marriage to Cécile Jeanrenaud on March 28, 1837 was apparently happy, and the couple had five children: Carl, Marie, Paul, Lilli and Felix.

Jenny Lind
Mendelssohn, though married, apparently fell in love with the Swedish soprano Jenny Lind, whom he met in October 1844. An affadavit from Lind's husband, which is currently held at the Royal Academy of Music in London, reportedly describes Mendelssohn's request for Lind to elope with him to America. The affadavit is currently unreleased by the Mendelssohn Scholarship Foundation, despite requests to make it public. Mendelssohn is known to have met Lind many times, and he was planning to write an opera for her, based on the legend of the Lorelei Rhine maidens. He included a high F sharp in his oratorio Elijah ("Hear Ye Israel") with her voice in mind. Upon his death Lind wrote, "[He was] the only person who brought fulfilment to my spirit, and almost as soon as I found him I lost him again"; and in 1869 she erected a plaque to Mendelssohn's memory at his birthplace in Hamburg.