Florence Foster Jenkins

Florence Foster Jenkins ( born July 19, 1868 in Wilkes -Barre, Pennsylvania, † November 26, 1944 in New York) was a wealthy American heiress who was known for her vocal performances.

Life

Florence Foster was the daughter of an industrialist. As a child she took music lessons and expressed the desire to study singing what her father did not wish to finance. After her marriage to the doctor Frank Thornton Jenkins struck in Philadelphia as a teacher and pianist through. 1903, the marriage ended in divorce, and Foster - Jenkins joined for a short time at the suffragettes. 1909 her father died and left her so much money that they could concentrate on her singing career, of which you had advised the parents and the ex-husband. It started on musical life in Philadelphia to participate, founded and financed the " Verdi Club", took singing lessons, and gave her first concert in 1912.

Soon, her reputation spread as a bad singer, first in Philadelphia and then across the country, their concerts were at a slant tip for insiders and she developed the exalted life of a diva. According to one anecdote she gave after a car accident the guilty link a box of cigars, as they felt their high f had become "higher" by the shock much.

Although the public wanted more appearances, Jenkins restricted to rare appearances in front of a select audience that they themselves chose, as their annual concerts at the Ritz -Carlton hotel in New York City. On October 25, 1944, she gave in to public pressure finally after and sang, aged 76, a concert in Carnegie Hall, which was sold out weeks in advance and the tickets on the black market cost large sums of money.

A month later she died because she was ill by the great effort of the concert. Some rumored she went on Gram based on the scathing newspaper reviews. ( One critic had written admiringly ironically, Foster Jenkins had " not let the intentions of the composer intimidated .")

Art

The recordings reveal of Foster Jenkins, that they did not maintain standards regarding intonation and rhythm, a rather small vocal range and had difficulties to keep sounds in length. The piano accompanist had to constantly refer to their tempo variations and rhythmic mistakes consideration. In addition to her singing her extravagant presentation was striking, they often changed during a concert, depending on which role she sang. From the audience she was loved, probably because you could enjoy themselves so well in their concerts. Some critics think that they have the music so far served as she made people curious about classical concerts.

She had an unshakable self-confidence and compared himself to great singers of her time as Frieda Hempel and Luisa Tetrazzini. Laughter which often came from the audience at her concerts, she perceived as meanness her jealous rivals. Criticism, they replied with the words: ". June People say I can not sing, but no one can ever say I did not sing" ( German: "People can say, perhaps, that I can not sing, but no one can argue that I could not sing. " ) This sentence can be read on her grave stone.

The choice of music at the concerts of the singer sat down from the standards of the operatic repertoire (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Strauss), songs ( for example, by Johannes Brahms ), and composed by her or her companion Cosme mcmoon itself works together. They did not shrink even from particularly difficult peak arias, particularly known her interpretation of the aria of the Queen of the Night was vengeance of Hell boils in my heart from the Magic Flute by Mozart.

Discography

• The Glory Of The Human Voice. RCA Victor Gold Seal 1992 ( CD Issue No. DG 61175 )
• The vengeance of Hell. Membrane Music, Hamburg 2004 ( 1 CD)
• Murder on the High Cs. Naxos Jazz, Berlin 2003 (1 CD)
• The Muse surmounted - F.F.J. and eleven of her rivals. Homophones 2004 ( 1 CD)

Works on Foster Jenkins

Most famous is the souvenir piece by Stephen Temperley, which in New York City on Broadway had great success in 2005. It made Foster Jenkins known again and has since been translated into several languages. Other pieces are Glorious! by Peter Quilter, which premiered in London in 2005 and had also Viva La Diva by Chris Ballance 2001. early as 1999, appeared the one-person piece Goddess of Song by Charles J. Fourie in South Africa.

Several bands have Florence Foster Jenkins dedicated songs.