 Icons of Europe has since 2003 researched
Chopin's
life and mythological legacy with particular
focus on his final years
(1848-1849) and the posthumous period.
"The one duty we owe to history is to
rewrite it"
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) in The Artist as Critic.
.
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New update in
March 2008
Overturning longstanding assumptions and
myths, the new research findings are well-documented.
In summary:
- Chopin had in 1848-1849
(after George Sand) a secret love affair with Jenny Lind, the soprano megastar and
philanthropist known
as The Swedish Nightingale. They met in London in May 1848
at the start of her opera tour of England, Scotland and
Ireland.
Wealthy, savvy and well-connected, Lind became quickly
Chopin's financial and musical patron.
- With the knowledge of Queen Victoria,
Jenny Lind travelled to Paris in May 1849 in a secret
but unsuccessful attempt to marry Chopin in a city
riveted by revolution and street fights and a deadly
cholera epidemic.
- After Chopin's death and her own triumphal concert tour
of America in 1850-1852 - during which she earned a huge
amount of money and married her accompanying German
pianist - Jenny Lind devoted the rest of her life
to paying tribute to Chopin’s music and enshrining his
legacy.
- Using the ancient symbols of Orpheus
and St. Cecilia, Jenny Lind stimulated the development
of a mythological framework in which Chopin’s music and
their romance became sources of inspiration for
composers, poets, painters and sculptors in La Belle
Époque - e.g. Liszt, Stravinsky, Sullivan, Wagner and
Wilde as well as exiled Polish artists.
- All along, Jenny Lind made an
elaborate cover-up of her true relationship with Chopin
in complicity with their friends as well as patrons such
as Queen Victoria and her family, and later the Tsar in St. Petersburg,
members of The Saturday Club in Boston, and Princess
Edmond de Polignac (Winnaretta), Paris. These
patrons also supported the creation of memorials for
Chopin (e.g. at his birthplace, Parc Monceau in Paris,
and Lazienki Park in Warsaw) and for Jenny Lind at
Westminster Abbey.
Research reports on items 1 and 2 have
been reviewed with experts in Warsaw, Edinburgh and
Brussels. A research report on items 3, 4 and 5 is
being prepared.
MORE >>
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Fryderyk Chopin
(1810-1849) |
Jenny Lind (1820-1887)
The Swedish Nightingale |
Queen Victoria
(1819-1901) |
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Icons of Europe's current research
focuses in particular on the enshrinement of Chopin's legacy
in the 1849-1929 period.
It continues to be conducted in consultation with the Fryderyk Chopin
Institute
in Warsaw; with national archives, libraries
and museums of Britain,
France, Poland and Sweden;
and with many other institutions.
Research
evidence presented in several reports and essays:
Copyright © 2003-2006 Icons of Europe, B-1380 Lasne.
All rights reserved.
Filed at the Copyright Office of the United States Library
of Congress, Washington, DC and at copyright authorities in
Brussels.
Produced by Icons of Europe based on the research:
- New
Chopin biography
- Musical
drama and concert
-
"Chopin in the World" essay
-
Screenplay for a new film
-
Chopin 2010 proposal |
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