Florence Foster Jenkins was a true original, an eccentric if you will. For a number of years Northwest Public Radio aired a request program once a month called First Friday. One month we received a request for Mein Herr Marquis, sung by Florence Foster Jenkins. At that time, we had an extensive LP collection so I searched the archives and found an old LP called
The Glory of the Human Voice.
I put the LP on the turntable and stood in stunned silence. I called fellow music host Gillian Coldsnow over to listen. I'm not sure how long it took before we realized that a musical practical joke had been played on us, but when we did we both burst into laughter! Guess what? We actually played the piece on that month's edition of First Friday. Guess what again? We had listener requests for more!
3 comments:
There is a wonderful, hilarious and poignant two-person play called "Souvenir" about the relationship between Florence Foster Jenkins and her accompanist. StageWest (a Des Moines, IA based regional theater on whose board I serve) produced a very successful run of this play last season. She was quite a character...but so philanthropic that she won the support of a huge fan base at the time. Thank you for profiling her on your blog.
Debra Storey Salowitz
Hi Debra,
I've not heard of this play before. Thanks!
As a result of bumping into a Florence Foster Jenkins track on the Net this morning, I've spent all of today investigating the subject of truly execrable music on the aforementioned medium. Some of the available offerings have had me laughing uncontrollably, and wondering how on earth they manage to get themselves recorded? From opera to modern pop and rock music, the tragically terrible is all out there, in surprisingly large quantities.
We should perhaps be grateful for these offerings. If we don't hear what is truly bad, how can we have a baseline against which to judge what is healthy and good?
FFJ's accompanist must have been an unendingly patient person. Or did she perhaps pay exceptionally well?
Google Leona Anderson. She's worth some examination... And have plenty of handkerchiefs to hand. You'll die either laughing or crying :-)
Mark L
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