"FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS" | Queen Of The Night
https://youtube.com/watch?v=usOt7W8Lw6E&si=mTpVUdxLM8lA6XF_
Apparently, her father wouldn't let her study music, and at the age of 14, she married a doctor who gave her syphilis!
"Florence Foster Jenkins" - Wikipedia
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Foster_Jenkins
"After graduating from high school, her hopes of studying music in Europe were dashed when her father refused permission and funding. On July 11, 1883, ten days after the funeral of her sister and eight days before her 15th birthday, Foster married Dr. Francis Thornton Jenkins (1852–1917), a physician 16 years her senior, in Philadelphia. (In the 1880s, the age of consent for marriage in Pennsylvania was ten.[11]) The following year, after learning that she had contracted syphilis from her husband, she ended their relationship and reportedly never spoke of him again. Years later, she claimed to have been granted a divorce decree on March 24, 1902, although no documentation of any such ruling has been found.[18] She retained the Jenkins surname for the remainder of her life."
And then she had syphilis for the rest of her life?
"The question of whether "Lady Florence"—as she liked to be called, and often signed her autographs[20]—was in on the joke, or honestly believed she had vocal talent, remains a matter of debate. On the one hand, she compared herself favorably with renowned sopranos Frieda Hempel and Luisa Tetrazzini, and seemed oblivious to the abundant audience laughter during her performances.[29] Her loyal friends endeavored to disguise the laughter with cheers and applause; they often described her technique to curious inquirers in "intentionally ambiguous" terms. For example, "her singing at its finest suggests the untrammeled swoop of some great bird".[30] Favorable articles and bland reviews, published in specialty music publications such as The Musical Courier, were most likely written by her friends or herself.[13] "I would say that she maybe didn't know [how badly she sang]," said mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne. "We can't hear ourselves as others hear us." Nerve damage due to syphilis and its treatment (see below) may have physically compromised her hearing as well.[27]
On the other hand, Jenkins refused to open her performances to the general public, and was clearly aware of her detractors. "People may say I can't sing," she once remarked to a friend, "but no one can ever say I didn't sing."[5] She dismissed her original accompanist, Edwin McArthur, after catching him giving her audience "a knowing smile" during a performance.[31] She went to great lengths to control access to her private recitals, which took place at her apartment, in small clubs, and each October at the Verdi Club's annual "Ball of the Silver Skylarks" in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel's Grand Ballroom. Attendance, by personal invitation only, was restricted to her loyal clubwomen and a select few others. Jenkins handled distribution of the coveted tickets herself, carefully excluding strangers, particularly music critics.[13] "There's no way she could not have known," said Schuman. "No one is that unaware ... she loved the audience reaction and she loved singing. But she knew."[27]
Despite her careful efforts to insulate her singing from public exposure, a majority of critics favored the view that Jenkins's self-delusion was genuine. "At that time Frank Sinatra had started to sing, and the teenagers used to faint during his notes and scream," McMoon told an interviewer. "So she thought she was producing the same kind of an effect."[27] "Florence didn't think she was pulling anyone's leg," said opera historian Albert Innaurato. "She was compos mentis, not a lunatic. She was a very proper, complex individual."[20] As an anonymous obituary writer later put it, "Her ears, schooled in constant introversion, heard only the radiant tones which never issued forth to quell the mirth of her audiences."[22]
"Florence Foster Jenkins" - Wikipedia
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Foster_Jenkins
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