Hello, I'm Carl Raymond, the host of the Gilded Gentleman History podcast.

And for the past two weeks in celebration of the opening of the opera season, we've been

dipping into the Gilded Age world of divas and drama, focusing on the story of Gilded Age

operatic superstar Lillian Nordica.

As a special bonus treat, I wanted to share with you this episode from the Bowery Boys

Archives, in which Greg and Tom tell the story of a very different soprano that took New York,

and indeed much of the world at that time, by Storm.

Her name was Jenny Lind, and she made her New York debut in

1850, years before Lillian Nordica was even born. Jenny Lind was a Swedish soprano who had been singing

in staged opera in Europe and then launched an enormously lucrative and celebrity

driven concert career in America under the direction of master showman P.T. Barnum. Jenny's story is one of

fame, exploitation, manipulation, and unrivaled publicity all to earn Barnum a buck.

The bulk of the money that Jenny earned herself, not an inconsiderable amount,

went to charities and into philanthropy of her own choosing.

In the end, it's a story of a young woman with an extraordinary voice,

and just how America's fascination

and frenzy with celebrity perhaps really began.

Hi there, welcome to the Bariy Boys. This is Greg Young.

And this is Tom Myers. And today we are ready to whisk you off to another time back 170 years ago in the city's history.

Oh, yes. We're going back to the year 1850 and a set of nights that basically

epitomize everything that we can't do at this particular moment here in April of 2020.

We're going to two nights, two very sold out nights nights, in a very crowded theater.

...