MME. HEMPEL AND JENNY LIND [To the Editor of the
SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In her letter, which appeared in the Spectator of December 13th, Mme: Hempel strangely contradicts her pre- vious announcements, and I beg leave to point out these contradictions. Mme. Hempel has been announcing herself as " impersonating " my mother, Mme. Jenny Lind, but in her letter to you she now says how strange it is " that a little turn of fate should transform me into a dual personality." Surely, if one is a person, one has no need to " impersonate." Again, if over a thousand people have written to her their recollections of my mother (and that would not exhaust the number who could do so), her memory would not seem to want so much reviving by a singer coming from abroad.
Thirdly, our family's objection to this impersonation of our mother is partly due to the fact that so many people who remember her, or know her record, consider that Mine. Hempel has not at all " submerged her own.personality," and, therefore, does not really recall Mme. Jenny Lind, but, on the contrary, gives a wrong impression of her.
Finally, I would like to say, that, more than a year ago Mme. Hempel's agents were aware of our objections, and in America they are also not unknown ; therefore, Mme. Hempel can hardly have been unaware of our opinions when she embarked on her campaign again this year.
Mme. Hempel is so fine a singer that she can quite well rely on her own powers, and I can assure her that if she did so she would be applauded by many people who have abstained from attending her concerts from distaste of her impersonations of my illustrious mother.—I am, Sir, &c.,
JENNY MAUDE.
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