Florence Foster Jenkins

Florence Foster Jenkins was flamboyant.  Her recordings still outsell contemporary singers.  She was a native New Yorker.  She founded a musical club.  She wanted to be a famous singer.  She was going to give a recital at Carnegie Hall in 1942.  However, she was the world’s worse opera singer.  The run time for this documentary is 1:27:40. Florence Foster Jenkins is played by opera superstar Joyce DiDonato.  Other actors played the part of the journalist who interviewed her, her pianist, her common-law-husband, and other people in her life.  Additionally, this documentary also includes original recordings of Florence Foster Jenkins.

The story of Florence Foster Jenkins kicks off with her being interviewed by a journalist.  She talks about establishing the Verdi Musical club because she was such a fan of Verdi’s music. Historians are puzzled by Florence Foster Jenkins.  Some see her as a farce.  She was a woman who thought she was an excellent opera singer.  However, the recordings show that she was not an excellent singer.  She bragged about her singing ability; however, the reality was very different.  She was a woman who had a strong belief in herself.  She believed herself to be the world’s best soprano.

Cosme McMoon, who was her pianist talks about Florence’s technique during their sessions together.  He reflects on her performances and talks about the audience’s reaction to her singing.  The audience did not want to hurt her feelings so instead of laughing, they burst into applause.  He even talks about the flamboyant costumes and ridiculous dances she did while practicing.

St. Clair Bayfield, her common-law talks about how she wanted to make people happy.  He thought the ridicule was ridiculous because she wanted to make people happy.  St. Clair was a handsome man but was dominated by Florence Foster Jenkins.  He worked his fingers to the bone helping her out.  He was a man who loaned his professionalism to her career.  St. Clair was also an archivist for Florence Foster Jenkins.  He kept many scrapbooks of her.

Kathleen Bayfield, St. Clair Bayfield’s later wife speaks about how she found Florence Foster Jenkins ridiculous.  She felt that Florence wasted the best years of St. Clair’s life.

Who was the real Florence Foster Jenkins?  She was born to wealthy parents in Pennsylvania.  From her childhood, she wanted to sing and her parents objected to the sound of her voice.  She did not sing in the presence of her parents.  One historian points to the neighborhood she grew up in as to why she had the confidence to do what she did.  She went to the best church and went the best all-female school.  She was a spoiled child indeed.  She leaves town, leaving everything behind.  Her father tried to control her using the inheritance.  She would marry the mysterious Frank Jenkins.  Who was John Thornton Jenkins, nobody knows?

She never mentioned her first husband after they separated.  She kept his name and added it to her maiden name.  They never had children together.  There were rumors that he gave her syphilis.  Historians were unsure if that diagnosis was true.  Some argue that Kathleen hated Florence and made up the story.  Others contend that the disease was too specific to not be a lie.  After this marriage, she fled to New York to recreate herself as this opera diva.  When her father died, she was well provided for.  Her mother was generous with the funds.  She also took singing lessons again with the understanding that she would not sing in public.

With the money, she supported a variety of clubs and founded the Verdi Club.  She was looking to enter the higher classes of society.  She would sing during Verdi Club meetings and would give her concerts at a variety of hotels over the years.  Each affair grew bigger and bigger every year.  She had grand plans and she was going to see them through.  So what would happen at the recital at Carnegie Hall?  How would the audience react?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out.

I have respect for Joyce going back and forth between singing badly and singing fantastically.  It probably took a lot of work and practice in order to sing badly.  This would be a documentary for the fun and frivolous day in history class.