Foster Jenkins, Florence

Jenkins was born in 1868 in the family of Charles Dorrans Foster and Mary Jane Hoagland. From the age of 8 she studied piano, and at seventeen she declared her desire to go to Europe to study music. Charles Foster, a wealthy industrialist, refused to pay for her project, so she fled to Philadelphia with doctor Frank Thornton Jenkins, who later became her husband. She earned her living by giving private music lessons. The marriage with Frank was unhappy, and in 1902 she divorced him. After the death of her father in 1909, Florence inherited from him an impressive amount, which allowed her to pursue her singing career, which she had long dreamed of and whose idea her parents and ex-husband disapproved of. She took lessons from some very famous opera star, whose name, besides Florence, knew (but never betrayed) only one person — her permanent manager, Saint Claire Bayfield. Actively involved in the musical life of Philadelphia and New York, she founded something like a society of classical music lovers - "Club Verdi".

In 1912, at her own expense, she organized her first solo concert. Then she began performing on the stages of Newport , Washington , Boston and Saratoga Springs . Little by little, year after year, Madame Jenkins’s efforts were crowned with success: she became a local celebrity in New York, and once a year gave a private concert at the Hotel, to which only favorites were invited — friends, admirers, critics and colleagues in the shop. Up to 800 people filled the hall. In 1928, her mother died.

Florence's voice was unique in the sense that no one before her dared to sing like that for the general public (and even professionally). She completely lacked a musical ear and a sense of rhythm, and she absolutely could not hold a note ^[2] . “She clucked and screamed, sounded and vibrated,” wrote the critic Daniel Dickson in December 1957, recalling Madame Jenkins. Her constant accompanist for many years, Cosme McMun, could hardly suppress laughter during concerts. “When it came time to sing, she forgot everything. Nothing could stop her. She thought she was a great artist, ”he said. Public laughter, coming from the audience, Florence regarded as a manifestation of professional envy.

Her repertoire consisted of the popular stage arias of Mozart , Verdi , Strauss , Brahms songs, as well as those written by herself and McMoon. Often, Madame Jenkins put on for performances "gorgeous" stage costumes, which she invented herself. Her most famous image was “Angel of Inspiration” - a silk dress with sparkles and cardboard wings behind her back (in it she appears on the cover of the disc The Glory (????) Of The Human Voice ).

In 1937, the recording studio Meloton Recording suggested that Florence record a record. Madame Jenkins showed a very original approach to studio work. All rehearsals and equipment settings were rejected by her. She just came in and started singing, the disc was recorded, and all the tracks were recorded the first time. After listening to the recordings, she called them “excellent” and demanded that the records were printed from them.

In 1943, a taxi in which Florence drove, had an accident. The singer remained unharmed and even suddenly discovered that after experiencing a shock, she could now take the highest note of fa , which she could not before. Instead of suing the taxi driver, she sent him a box of expensive cigars in gratitude.

For a long time, Madame Jenkins fans urged her to perform on the most prestigious stage of New York - at Carnegie Hall , but for some unknown reason she refused. On October 25, 1944, 76-year-old Florence finally gives a concert there. The excitement was such that all the tickets were sold out a few weeks before the concert, and the price for them reached $ 20.

A month after his triumph, November 26, 1944 , Florence Foster Jenkins died. It was rumored that she had passed away, not having transferred the many derisive reviews of critics to a performance at Carnegie Hall. “They are so ignorant, so ignorant!” She lamented about them. However, everything suggests that she died a happy person. After her death, McMun tried to seize her property, saying that he was her lover, despite numerous testimonies that he was a homosexual .

Plays

Based on the life of Madame Jenkins, three plays were created. The first was set up in 2001 by Chris Ballance in Edinburgh Fringe. The second play, Souvenir, is on Broadway in 2005. The third, Gorgeous, was successfully shown in London and nominated for the Laurence Olivier Theater Award ^[3] .

Movies

• In 2015, the French film Margarita was published, in which the image of the main character Margarita Dumont is based on the biography of Jenkins ^[4] .
• In 2016, the film “ Florence Foster Jenkins ” by Stephen Frears was released, in which the main role was played by Meryl Streep .

• The Glory (????) Of The Human Voice (1992)
• The Elephant Surmounted: Florence Foster Jenkins And Her Rivals
• Murder On The High C’s
• Even More Glory (????) Of The Human Voice