Elizabeth Parcells unearths Jenny Lind’s coloratura echo song

THE SONGBIRD: Born in Michigan, Elizabeth Parcells (1951 - 2005) studied in Boston, was a Met Opera Auditions Winner in 1977, and then a grant enabled her to move to Switzerland to launch her career. She lived in Germany until 1997, singing coloratura roles in standard and adventurous contemporary operatic and concert works in major opera houses and festivals. When she settled back in the U.S., Parcells taught voice and sang in concerts and recitals, until she tragically died of cancer at the age of 54. She has many YouTube videos of her singing (posted posthumously), and I encourage everyone to sample more of her extraordinary artistry.

THE MUSIC: Legendary 19th century Swedish soprano Jenny Lind programmed this coloratura arrangement of a Norwegian folk song into her recitals, titled as an "Echo Song." Newspaper accounts of a recital from 1851 in Madison, Indiana claimed that in the final cadenza, Jenny Lind (seemingly accompanying herself) "turned from the pianoforte towards the audience, facing it, and singing straight towards the length of the room (having in view the production of the echo) until the final notes, when she slowly turned back towards the pianoforte, and struck the chord of D to the same note in the voice part. The effect produced so nearly resembled that of a natural echo reverberating from the opposite wall that it never failed to mystify an audience before which it was presented for the first time." Parcells performed as Jenny Lind several times -- in period costume -- recreating some of Lind's favorite showpieces and art songs.