Editing Felix Mendelssohn (section)

=== Jenny Lind ===
Mendelssohn became close to the Swedish soprano [[Jenny Lind]], whom he met in October 1844. Papers confirming their relationship had not been made public.<ref name="independent.co.uk">[[Jessica Duchen|Duchen, Jessica]]. [http://jessicaduchen.co.uk/pdfs/indi_2009/mendelssohn_jan12.pdf "Conspiracy of Silence: Could the Release of Secret Documents Shatter Felix Mendelssohn's Reputation?"], ''[[The Independent]]'', 12 January 2009. Retrieved 4 August 2014</ref>{{refn|Mercer-Taylor wrote that although there was no currently available hard evidence of a physical affair between the two, "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence".{{sfn|Mercer-Taylor|2000|p=192}} Clive Brown wrote that "it has been rumoured that [...] papers tend to substantiate the notion of an affair between Mendelssohn and Lind, though with what degree of reliability must remain highly questionable".{{sfn|Brown|2003|p=33}}|group=n}} In 2013, George Biddlecombe confirmed in the ''[[Journal of the Royal Musical Association]]'' that "The Committee of the [[Mendelssohn Scholarship]] Foundation possesses material indicating that Mendelssohn wrote passionate love letters to Jenny Lind entreating her to join him in an adulterous relationship and threatening suicide as a means of exerting pressure upon her, and that these letters were destroyed on being discovered after her death."{{sfn|Biddlecombe|2013|p=85}}

Mendelssohn met and worked with Lind many times, and started an opera, ''Lorelei'', for her, based on the legend of the [[Lorelei]] Rhine maidens; the opera was unfinished at his death. He is said to have tailored the aria "Hear Ye Israel", in his oratorio ''[[Elijah (oratorio)|Elijah]]'', to Lind's voice, although she did not sing the part until after his death, at a concert in December 1848.{{sfn|Sanders|1956|p=466}} In 1847, Mendelssohn attended a London performance of Meyerbeer's ''Robert le diable''&nbsp;– an opera that musically he despised&nbsp;– in order to hear Lind's British debut, in the role of Alice. The music critic [[Henry Chorley]], who was with him, wrote: "I see as I write the smile with which Mendelssohn, whose enjoyment of Mdlle. Lind's talent was unlimited, turned round and looked at me, as if a load of anxiety had been taken off his mind. His attachment to Mdlle. Lind's genius as a singer was unbounded, as was his desire for her success."{{sfn|Chorley|1972|p=194}}

Upon Mendelssohn's death, Lind wrote: "[He was] the only person who brought fulfillment to my spirit, and almost as soon as I found him I lost him again." In 1849, she established the [[Mendelssohn Scholarship]] Foundation, which makes an award to a young resident British composer every two years in Mendelssohn's memory. The first winner of the scholarship, in 1856, was [[Arthur Sullivan]], then aged 14. In 1869, Lind erected a plaque in Mendelssohn's memory at his birthplace in Hamburg.<ref name="independent.co.uk" />{{sfn|Sanders|1956|p=467}}