In September, 1850, Jenny Lind gave her first concert in the old Castle Garden, at the foot of Broadway, New York. Tickets were sold at five dollars each. Large amounts were also received from premiums, and there was realized from that first concert thirty-five thousand dollars—official record.

Does not the above read like exaggerated nonsense ? Nevertheless, it is true history.

In 1850 there was no concert-room of decent size uptown in New York, and Mr. P. T. Bamum was allowed to alter the interior of Castle Garden in such a manner as to fit it for his purpose. It was made large enough to hold between six and seven thousand persons, the old circular form being retained.

Probably a year in advance of Jenny Lind’s advent in America, Mr. Barnum began to prepare the American people to properly receive “the musical saint,” “the second Santa Cae cilia,” “ the angel of the stage,” " the most wonderful singer ever listened to by mortal ears,” etc.

[...]

The result was that the public was made to believe that saints and angels were nowhere in comparison with Jenny Lind, and that a hearing of her singing of I Know that my Redeemer Liveth was quite evangelizing in its effect.

She did sing it grandly, and with a fervor which satisfied every musician. Handel himself would have gone down on his knees to thank her for a true, devotional, musician-like performance of that fine song.