Today we talk about who Florence Foster Jenkins is. Her biography will be described in detail below. This is an American pianist and singer with a soprano voice. She is one of the first representatives of the so-called outsider music. She became famous due to the lack of singing talent, a sense of rhythm and musical hearing. At the same time, she considered herself an unsurpassed vocalist. She observed a variation of the so-called Dunning-Krueger effect. In this state, a person is confident in his genius or talent, although this is objectively not so.
Biography
Foster Jenkins Florence is a pianist who was born in 1868. Her parents were Charles Dorrans and Mary Jane. She studied piano from eight years old. At 17, she announced her desire to go to Europe to study music. The wealthy industrialist Charles Foster refused to pay for her project. As a result, she fled with a doctor named Frank Thornton Jenkins to Philadelphia. Later he became the husband of our heroine. Florence Foster Jenkins made a living by giving music lessons.
With Frank, the marriage was unhappy. They divorced in 1902. In 1909, after the father passed away, our heroine inherited an impressive amount. This allowed her to begin her singing career. She dreamed about this for a very long time. However, the former husband and parents disapproved of this idea.
Verdi Club
Florence Foster Jenkins took lessons from the famous opera singer, but only our heroine and Claire Bayfield, her manager, knew her name. Actively involved in the creative musical life of New York and Philadelphia, she founded the Verdi Club. It resembled a society of connoisseurs of classical music.
Florence Foster Jenkins in 1912 at her own expense organized a debut solo concert. Then she began to perform on various stages of Saratoga Springs, Boston, Washington and Newport. Over time, the efforts of our heroine were successful. She became a celebrity in New York. Every year she gave a closed concert at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. Only a select few were invited to this event: colleagues, critics, fans and friends. Crammed into the hall up to 800 people. In 1928, the mother of our heroine died.
Feature
The Florins phenomenon Jenkins Florence is the uniqueness of her voice. The fact is that before her no one dared to sing like that for the general public. She completely lacked a sense of rhythm and ear for music. She could not completely keep the note. Cosme McMoon, her constant accompanist, could hardly suppress laughter at her concerts. The laughter of the audience that came from the hall, our heroine regarded as professional envy. Her repertoire consisted of the famous stage arias of Strauss, Verdi, Mozart, Brahms songs. It also included works written by her and MacMoon.
Scene
For performances, Florence Foster Jenkins often wore unusual
stage costumes, invented by herself. The most famous image is the “Angel of Inspiration”, a silk dress with cardboard wings and sparkles. In 1937, a recording studio called Meloton Recording invited our heroine to record a record.
She distinguished herself by a very original approach to working in the studio. All equipment settings and rehearsals were rejected by her. She came to the studio and sang. All disc tracks were recorded from one time. After listening to the result, the singer recognized him as excellent. She demanded that the records were created precisely on the basis of these records.
In 1943, a taxi carrying Florence suffered an accident. The singer remained unharmed. In addition, she discovered that it was after the event that she could take the highest note of fa. Previously, she could not do this. As a result, she sent a box with expensive cigars to the taxi driver in gratitude.
For a long time, our heroine was asked to perform on the stage of Carnegie Hall - the most prestigious venue in New York. However, she refused, without explaining the reasons. But in 1944, on October 25, Florence at the age of 76 finally gave a concert there. The excitement was so great that they managed to sell all the tickets a few weeks before the concert. Florence Foster Jenkins died a month after the triumph. It happened in 1944, November 26th.