Two months ago went to the theater to see a performance written by Peter Quilter which is called Divine. This show told the story of Florence Foster Jenkins who was the most popular… untalented opera singer. She was born on July 19th, 1868 and she was the daughter of an influential banker. Despite the total lack of vocal, musical talent and not very attractive features she dreamt about soprano singing. Florence loved music and she wanted to be a star. At 17 years old she had the first attempt performance before an audience. Her good intentions and a huge desire to be a diva were not enough. She has become a laughing-stock of million people. Despite the fact that her father categorically discouraged an opera singer career, she was stubborn and she did not listen to advice. Shortly after the death of her father she launched her first gigs which were entirely funded by property inherited from her rich father.
The performances of Florence Foster enjoyed great popularity. Crowds came to her concerts and the audience laughed their heads off during falsify outstanding arias by well known composers. She tried to diversify her performances by dancing and performing strange looking facial gestures which she diligently put on during the singing. Gathered audience laughed and the artist pretended not to hear anything and she did not realize the low level of presented art. With a smile on her lips she bowed several times to the audience.
She also loved when the amused audience rewarded her performance with thunderous ovation asking for another encore. She often came down from the stage to the dressing room where she dressed up in different clothes and next she gave another show. Among the group of her admirers were Enrico Caruso and Cole Porter. She became the symbol of the sentence that it is worthwhile to fight for your dreams.
Florence died on November 1944. By many critics named her “The worst opera singer in the world”. Her artistic achievement is a CD with arias of “The Flory of the Human Voice” in which you can find 12 tracks. This is the most popular:
Comments
As we can see even with absolutely no talent and skills we can be famous. It is also similar nowadays. I remember few years ago the song “Friday” by Rebecca Black. This is similar story.
On one hand she really might be a symbol for "fight for your dreams" sentence. Almost nothing stopped her from doing what she really loved and she must have been a very happy person.
On the other hand - come on, get real! People are paid for doing something they actually CAN do and other people benefit from their services. This is how the world is supposed to work. And Florence is just another example of a rich girl with too much time who is following her caprices and delusional fantasies instead of being of use to society.
I also like to sing. It helps me relax. But I have a little bit of modesty and self-criticism and this is why I sing alone, when only my cats can look at me and hate me even more.
Your article reminded me about one swimmer from Equatorial Guinea who took part in Olympic in Sydney. Here you can watch short video from this performance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rqI8xwXVac . I haven't heard about this Lady before but for sure, she might be a symbol for "fight for your dreams".
I don't think we should remember her as a very bad singer. Her performance was not worse than average, it was actually better... just in a different way.
Also you have encourage me to see the Divine performance :)
To be honest, I have mixed feelings about that. On the one hand, her singing is funny, of course (maybe I should start my own music career, I have a feeling I would sound similarly bad :D). On the other, it's kind of sad - woman who thinks everyone admires her, when in fact they laugh at her. I wonder if she pretended she didn't notice, or she really didn't? Probably we'll never know, but it's really sad to think she might have realised that.
Anyway, it's great she achieved her dream. However, if she had the money, it would be wise to take some singing lessons first. I've heard that if you have a good teacher, you can learn to sing even if your voice is bad.
It's nothing new that people will buy tickets to see other fail at whatever they are doing.