Saturday, June 1, 2013

Florence Foster Jenkins

Imagine that you are forced to sing an aria. With all due respect to your musical skills you would probably sound like a cat in heat that is about to be killed. There was one person in history that didn't mind it. Florence Foster Jenkins. Despite the fact that she was born in a wealthy family her father refused to pay for an opera study abroad. She was married to a physician for seven years. After a divorce she was living with a stage actor St. Clair Baufield who was later her manager. Thanks to money inherited from her father she could start career as a singer. She began giving recitals. Florence had no talent at all: she sang out of tune and out of rythem. Nevertheless she was extremely famous. Her biggest achievement was a preformence in the Carnegie Hall in 1944.
Why she was so popular? Most probable is that people were going to her concerts to laugh at her, to feel superior. Why she was singing although she evidently hadn't talent? She had a big ego, and lacked self-criticisme - that's for sure. But isn't it uplifting? That you can do whatever you want even if you have no talent? (Money is helpful in this case..). But sing loudly and proudly for the sake of dreams! You will never be worse than this: