Florence Foster Jenkins (born Narcissa Florence Foster ; July 19, 1868 - November 26, 1944) was a soprano of American socialite and amateur who was known and ridiculed for his flamboyant costume. and especially bad singing ability. Historian Stephen Pile places him as "the world's worst opera singer". "No one, before or since," he wrote, "has managed to free themselves from the bond of musical notation."
Despite (or perhaps because of) his technical incapacity, he became a prominent music sect figure in New York City during the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. Cole Porter, Gian Carlo Menotti, Lily Pons, Sir Thomas Beecham, and other celebrities are fans. Enrico Caruso is said to have "considered him affectionate and respectful". Poet William Meredith writes that what Jenkins gave "... was never really an aesthetic experience, or just at the level that an early Christian among the lions gave an aesthetic experience; it was primarily immoral, and Madame Jenkins was always eaten, in the end. "
Video Florence Foster Jenkins
Personal life and career start
Narcissa Florence Foster was born July 19, 1868, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, daughter of Charles Dorrance Foster (1836-1909), a lawyer and descendant of a wealthy Pennsylvania landowner family, and Mary Jane Hoagland Foster (1851-1930). His sibling, a younger sister named Lillian, died at the age of eight in 1883 diphtheria.
Foster said he first realized his lifelong passion for public appearances when he was seven years old. A talented pianist, he appeared in his youth at community events as "Little Miss Foster", and gave a recital at the White House during the reign of President Rutherford B. Hayes. After graduating from high school, he expressed a desire to study music in Europe. When his father refused to grant the necessary permits or funds, he eloped with Dr. Frank Thornton Jenkins (1852-1917) to Philadelphia, where they married in 1885. The following year, after learning that he had syphilis from her husband, ended their relationship and reportedly never talked about it again. Years later, Florence confirmed that the divorce decree had been granted on March 24, 1902, although no documentation of the process had ever emerged. She retained the Jenkins family name for the rest of her life.
After an arm injury ended his aspiring career as a pianist, Jenkins gave piano lessons in Philadelphia to support himself; but around 1900, he moved with his mother to New York City. In 1909, Jenkins met an English Shakespeare actor named St. Clair Bayfield, and they start a clear cohabitation relationship that continues the rest of his life. After his father's death later that year, Jenkins became a big recipient of trust, and decided to continue his musical career as a singer, with Bayfield as his manager. He started taking sound lessons and immersed himself in the wealthy New York City community, joining dozens of social clubs. As the "musical chairman" for many of these organizations, he began producing the luxurious tableaux vivants - a popular diversion within the social circle of crusts of the era. In each of these productions, Jenkins has always made himself the main character in the ultimate tablo , wearing an elaborate costume of his own design. In the widely publicized photo, Jenkins poses in a costume, complete with angel wings, from her tablo inspired by the paintings of Howard Chandler Christy Stephen Foster and the Inspirational Angels .
Jenkins began giving personal vocal recitations in 1912, when he was in his early forties. In 1917, he became the founder and "President Soprano Hostess" from his own social organization, Verdi Club, dedicated to "fostering love and protection of the Grand Opera in English". Its membership quickly swelled to more than 400; honorary members including Enrico Caruso. When Jenkins's mother died in 1930, additional financial resources became available for the expansion and promotion of her singing career.
Maps Florence Foster Jenkins
Vocal career
According to published reviews and other contemporary accounts, Jenkins's acknowledged ability at the piano was not well translated into his singing. He is described as having great difficulty with basic vocal skills such as pitch, rhythm, and retaining notes and phrases. In the recording, the accompanist, CosmÃÆ'Â © McMoon, can be heard making adjustments to compensate for the constant variations of tempo and rhythmic errors, but there is little he can do to hide his inaccurate intonation. He is consistently flat, sometimes so. His words are also substandard, especially with the lyrics of foreign languages. The tough opera solos he chose to perform - all beyond his technical skills and vocal range - serve only to emphasize these deficiencies. "There is no way to pedagogically discuss it," vocal instructor Bill Schuman said. "It's amazing that he even tried to sing that music." The opera impresario Ira Siff, who dubbed him "anti-Callas", said, "Jenkins is so bad, so bad that it adds a pretty good night in the theater ... He will deviate from the original music, and do deep things and instinct in his voice, but in a very distorted way.There is no end to the ugliness ... They say Cole Porter must hit his cane to his feet so as not to laugh loudly when he sings. He's that bad. "However, Porter rarely missed a recital.
The question of whether "Lady Florence" - because he likes to be called, and often signs his signature - is in a joke, or honestly believes he has vocal talent, remains a matter of debate. On the one hand, he compares himself with the famous soprano singer, Frieda Hempel and Luisa Tetrazzini, and does not seem to realize the many laughs of the audience during his performance. His faithful loyal friends tried to disguise laughter with cheers and applause; and they often describe the technique to the curious questioners in terms of "deliberately ambiguous" - for example, "his singing in the best form indicates an inevitable big bird's incision". Profitable articles and bland reviews, published in special music publications such as The Musical Courier , most likely written by his friends, or himself. "I would say that he probably did not know [how bad he was singing]," said mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne. "We can not hear ourselves when others hear us." Neural damage due to syphilis and its treatment (see below) may have disturbed his hearing physically as well.
On the other hand, Jenkins refuses to open his appearance to the general public, and is clearly aware of his critics. "People may say I can not sing," he once commented to a friend, "but nobody can say I'm not singing." He refused his original companion, Edwin McArthur, after capturing him giving his audience a "meaningful smile" during the show. She tries hard to control access to a rare recital, which takes place in her apartment, in small clubs, and once every October at the Grand Ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. Attendance, with a personal invitation only, is restricted to loyal club women and several others elected. Jenkins handles the distribution of self-cherished tickets, carefully excluding strangers, especially music critics. "There's no way he does not know," Schuman said. "No one is not aware... he likes the audience reaction and he likes to sing, but he knows."
Despite the careful efforts to isolate his singing from public exposure, many contemporary opinions support the view that Jenkins's imagination is genuine. "At that time, Frank Sinatra started singing, and the teenagers usually fainted during notes and shouted," McMoon told an interviewer. "So he thought he had the same effect." "Florence did not think he pulled anybody's legs," said opera historian Albert Innaurato. "He is a compos mentis , not a madman, he is a very precise and complex individual."
The recital features arias from standard opera repertoires by Mozart, Verdi, and Johann Strauss; lieder by Brahms; Valverde's waltz Spanish "Clavelitos" ("Little Carnations"); and songs made by himself and McMoon. As in his tableaux , he completes his appearance with an elaborate costume of his own design, often involving wings, tinsel and flowers. He will do "Clavelitos" dressed as Carmen, complete with musical instruments and woven baskets of flowers, clicking on musical instruments and throwing flowers one by one. When he runs out of flowers, he throws the basket as well - and then a musical instrument. His fans, realizing that "Clavelitos" is his favorite song, will usually demand an encore, which drives him to send McMoon to the audience to pick up flowers, baskets and musical instruments so he can sing that number again.
Once, when a taxi where he was riding collided with another car, Jenkins issued a high-pitched shout. Upon arriving home, he immediately went to his piano and confirmed (at least for himself) that the record he shouted was a fairy tale "F on a high C" - a field he had never accomplished before. Excited, he refused to file a lawsuit against one of the parties involved, and even sent the taxi driver to an expensive cigar box. McMoon did not say he "or anyone else" ever heard him actually sing a high F song.
At age 76, Jenkins finally surrendered to a public request and booked Carnegie Hall for a public reception show on October 25, 1944. Tickets for the event sold out weeks earlier; the request was such that an estimated 2,000 people were denied at the door. Many celebrities were present, including Porter, Marge Champion, Gian Carlo Menotti, Kitty Carlisle, and Lily Pons with her husband, Andre Kostelanetz, who composed songs for the show. McMoon then remembers the "very important" moment: "[When he sings] 'If my silhouette does not convince you yet/My figure will definitely' [from aria Adele in Die Fledermaus ], he puts his right hand into hips and goes to the most ridiculous dance I've ever seen, and creates chaos in that place.A famous actress should be taken out of his box because he's so hysterical. "
Since the ticket distribution got out of Jenkins's control for the first time, scoffers, scoffers, and critics could no longer be safeguarded. The next morning's paper was filled with scathing and sarcastic comments that destroyed Jenkins, according to Bayfield. "[Mrs. Jenkins] has a good voice," wrote the critic of New York Sun. "In fact, he can sing it all except a note... Most of the singing is really lacking in pitch resemblance, but the further a note from the right height, the more the audience laughs and applauds." The New York Post is even less generous: "Lady Florence... late last night in one of the weirdest bulk jokes New York has ever seen."
Five days after the concert, Jenkins suffered a heart attack while shopping at G. Schirmer's music store, and died a month later on November 26, 1944, at his residence in Manhattan, Seymour Hotel. She is buried beside her father in Foster's tomb, Hollenback Cemetery, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
Possible effects of ongoing medical issues
Some of Jenkins' performance difficulties have been linked to untreated syphilis, which causes progressive damage of the central nervous system in later stages. Other nerve damage and morbidity caused by the disease may have been exacerbated by toxic side effects - such as hearing loss - from mercury and arsenic, the prevailing (and largely ineffective) syphilis medication of the pre-antibiotic era. By the time penicillin became available in the 1940s, Jenkins's disease had progressed to the tertiary stage, which was unresponsive to antibiotics.
Recordings
Audio
The only professional Jenkins audio recording consists of nine choices on five 78-rpm records (Melotone Recording Studio, New York City, 1941-1944), produced by Jenkins himself, at his own expense. This includes four coloratura arias from opera by Mozart, Delibes, Johann Strauss II, and FÃÆ' Â © licien David, and five art songs, two written for Jenkins by piano player, CosmÃÆ'Â © McMoon. Eight of these options were released by RCA Victor on a 10-inch LP in 1954, and reissued on a 12-inch LP in 1962. The material has been re-published in various combinations on three CDs: The Glory (????) of Human Voice (Sony Classical, OCLCÃ, 968787814, 1992) is a reissue of Victor's 1962 recordings with the same eight choices, plus a Jenkins photo in his Angel of Inspiration costume.
Movies
Jenkins commissioned the filming of his performance at the annual Verdi Club annual event, "Ball of the Silver Skylarks", which takes place every October at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. Although there is plenty of evidence, in Verdi Club programs and elsewhere, that the show was filmed, the films themselves were deemed lost until the prints from 1934 to 1939 and 1941 events were found in 2009. Jenkinsian historian Donald Collup has announced plans to showcase excerpts from his filmed performances in the upcoming documentary.
In popular culture
Jenkins has been an inspiration for five stages of production:
- Precious Few , a game about Jenkins and British novelist Ronald Firbank by Terry Sneed, aired in 1994 at Wildwood Park for Performing Arts in Little Rock, Arkansas.
- Goddess of Song , a woman playing by South African playwright Charles J. Fourie and performed by Carolyn Lewis, was performed in 1999 at the Coffee Lounge in Cape Town, South Africa.
- Viva La Diva by Chris Ballance ran in 2001 at Edinburgh Fringe.
- Souvenir: Fantasia at Florence Foster Jenkins by Stephen Temperley opened on Broadway at the York Theater in 2004 with Jack Lee as Cosme McMoon and Judy Kaye as Mrs Jenkins. After the temporary engagement at the Berkshire Theater Festival opened on Broadway at the Lyceum Theater in 2005, directed by Vivian Matalon with Donald Corren as Cosme McMoon and Judy Kaye as Jenkins. Kaye sums up the difficulty of her role: "It's hard work to sing very well.You can sing badly bad for a while, but you'll hurt yourself if you do it for long."
- Glorious! by Peter Quilter opened in 2005 in West End London with Maureen Lipman who starred as Jenkins. It was nominated for the Olivier Award as Best New Comedy, and has since been conducted in over 40 countries in 27 languages.
"Florence Foster Jenkins", a song on the self-titled 2009 album by Indie folk band Everyday Visuals, is "a tribute to the stubborn artists struggling against the long odds".
Jenkins is the subject of the "Not My Work" segment of the NPR radio program
Biographical documentary Florence Foster Jenkins: The World He Owns was released in 2007.
Anne McCaffrey's short section in 1994 "Euterpe on a Fling" is a fictitious interview with Jenkins that draws on known facts about his life and his career.
The feature film of France 2015 Marguerite is inspired by the life and career of Jenkins.
Florence Foster Jenkins, an English bio-pic starring Meryl Streep in the title role, directed by Stephen Frears and aired in London on April 12, 2016, and in New York on August 12, 2016. Streep was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress among other awards for her role as Jenkins.
References
External links
- Florence Foster Jenkins in the Search of the Mausoleum
- Florence Foster Jenkins ephemera, clippings saved for Jenkins and her husband, St. Clair Bayfield, in the Division of Music New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
- Liners from RCA CDs, photos and articles about Jenkins by Daniel Dixon
- Maureen Lipman, "Main diva of din", The Guardian , 3 November 2005
- "Tra-la-laughable, but love him" about the drama Glorious! , The Sydney Morning Herald (October 4, 2007)
- 5 People Who Fail to Fame and Luck - # 2. Florence Foster Jenkins
- Bullock, Darryl W. (2016). Florence! Helping the development !! Jenkins !!!: The Life of the Worst Opera Singer in the World . The Overlook Press. ISBN: 9781468314090.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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