This article appeared on Black number 15, March 2008. difficult to describe in words a story of Florence Foster Jenkins. Perhaps, without spending in adjectives and avoiding reckless dissertations, we reduce the matter to a simple fact: that no accident has been called "the worst singer in history" is, at best, terribly out of tune. The ineptitude voice of women, moreover, is amplified by the fact that, far dall'accontentarsi footage of a "low" and - if not within his reach - at least not very demanding, if anything, engages in the most perilous precincts of opera, without challenging qualms laws, techniques and syntax of the highest tradition of "bel canto". What an amateur incapable of giving meaning to concepts such as rhythm, phrasing, timbre, register, pay his throat to the repertoire of Callas and Tebaldi, sums up the disaster that immediately follows. But not enough. The records that we have received Foster Jenkins, sinking further into disaster when the listener, after the trauma of the impact singing, finally pays attention to the accompaniment at the piano. What, this prerogative of Cosme McMoon (a character we shall return), results in a strumming shaky and out of phase, but not - this should be underway - the pianist for demerits, but for the objective difficulty in following flourishes and falls of the "diva".
you imagine the result: an endless agony of torturatimpani cues, tempo changes arbitrary code in half and then went on leave at the last minute, up and down thrilling horror. We are short before a phenomenon - we would say today according to a terminology abused - prototrash, that is to say "no emulation of a high model" as defined by Thomas Labranca? Absolutely not. The story of Foster Jenkins in the fall rather more ambiguous realm of so-called outsider music, a sort of undercurrent to the characters themselves (and indeed somewhat questionable), that includes within it so large irregular such as Harry Partch, as genuine cases of dissociation as that of the Shaggs. The journalist and music critic Irwin Chusid gave a picture in some respects unsurpassed when, in 2000, he edited the book (with a cd) "Songs in the Key of Z": a huge parade of outcasts for one reason or the ' more on the margins from the music business, you want the actual details of the proposal, either for psychological reasons if not more diverse behavior. Here, then extract, side by side, Tiny Tim and Syd Barrett, Captain Beefheart and Wild Man Fischer, Joe Meek and Daniel Johnston, Jandek and Wesley Willis: well-known names in the underground pantheon alongside genuine loose cannon, and patrons of luxury and genuine phenomena like the aforementioned cases and Partch Shaggs.
appeal could not miss the same Foster Jenkins, who at the end of this universe is a bit 'the noble ancestor, and this for two main reasons: the period which diva operated (1912 to 1944), and the great success that smiled. A successful "cult" within the limits of eccentricity for geeks, but still fit in a segregated environment at all or marginal. In some ways, "diva" Foster Jenkins was for real: not only was a star in the classic sense. His career is a hymn the joy of living in "and then I can", in relation to critical indifference if not actual contempt of others, and all'incrollabile faith in a self-proclaimed greatness that, in its exterior in a manner so cruel and resolute ends in order to be truly such.
Florence Foster was founded in 1868 by a wealthy family in Pennsylvania, and as a child taking piano lessons. He also performs at an early age, just ten years, before an audience that proclaims Little Miss Foster, and music remains his passion until, seventeen, his father does not ask permission to continue his studies abroad. But Foster father refuses, whereupon she embarks on a true romantic getaway along with Dr. Frank Thornton Jenkins, who later became her husband. Times were hard, but in 1909 everything changed when the father dies, leaving Foster then quarantunenne Florence (which was separated by Dr. Jenkins first seven years) a substantial inheritance. Begins at this point that a social ladder of prodigious free from the economic and emotional, Florence breaks into the beautiful world of the East Coast animating exclusive club for wealthy ladies, organizing social events, and giving life to the Verdi Club, where he was able to vent his passion for music never died down. Meanwhile However, an accident in the arm prevents her from performing on the piano: it is here that Florence decided to point blank to give himself a career as a singer, and the results we saw them well. Jenkins is the voice of what is, but it does not matter: her influence in high society in the same memories of the protagonists is a mixture of shades of mediocrity and grotesque, is that, since 1912, the future diva takes to perform in Philadelphia, New York, Washington and Newport. Begins to take shape the profile of a character by character coarse, even a little 'vulgar notoriously stingy despite the great fortune available, but the petty ways boundless ego, loves to perform Florence Foster Jenkins in gaudy costumes and ridiculous at the same time, convinced as it is of a magnitude that, curiously, no one in his entourage seems to put in doubt. His first, highly esteemed accompanist, Edwin McArthur, worked with her for six years but was fired after that, in the middle of a performance, could not stand over and burst into laughter during one of the more common, acute tragicomic. Substituted in its place the young Cosme McMoon, another figure of reprehensible social climber but all things considered unlikely. Even McMoon laughs during the rehearsal of a singer, but this time Jenkins does not object anything: indeed, the faces of the pianist in the middle of performances and become the pinnacle of a show that begins to make proselytes even wider scale. They enter in the studio in 1941 to record some songs then published by the record Melotone. It seems that Jenkins was not satisfied with the result, and in particular that harbored some misgivings about his trial in the famous aria of Mozart's Magic Flute. It was the directors themselves Melotone to convince her that instead of the result was perfect, and made good: in its way, that's the masterpiece of the couple Jenkins / McMoon.
The apotheosis came in 1944 when the star has been 76 years. On 25 October, she performed in the frame of the Carnegie prestigiossima Hall, in una serata che segnò il tutto esaurito con diversi giorni d'anticipo. Le reazioni della critica furono, comprensibilmente, a metà tra la derisione e l'attacco al vetriolo, e non è ben chiaro se la Jenkins le prese con la sua oramai proverbiale altezzosità, comunque sicura di aver semmai stabilito un'altra vetta nella storia della lirica, o se invece (le testimonianze divergono) ne soffrì al punto da scoppiare in lacrime, comprendendo in ultimo i reali motivi di un successo tutto fuorché nobile: la sua era una null'altro che una curiosità, e fu quella curiosità a riempire la Carnegie. Florence Foster Jenkins morì pochi mesi dopo, e resta il dubbio se si sia spenta nel tripudio o nell'umiliazione.
La fama postuma dalla peggior cantante della storia è faccenda piuttosto recente, dovuta più che altro alla ristampa in cd dei vecchi 78 giri Melotone. Le due raccolte "The Glory (????) of the Human Voice" e "Murder on the High C's" hanno rinverdito i fasti di una vicenda a cui alcuni tuttora guardano come a una colossale montatura, incapaci di accettare che invece, come si suol dire, "è tutto vero". La scomparsa della diva per molto tempo non ha lasciato una vera e propria eredità se non quella economica: il buon Cosme McMoon se ne mostrò particolarmente interessato, arrivando a reclamare i beni Jenkins of the deceased as his former lover. McMoon pity that he was homosexual. The last picture we received the former pianist, shows him next to a young Arnold Schwarzenegger in the year of grace 1974. At the time, McMoon was a celebrity in some men's gyms in Manhattan, and certainly not for his relentless training. Rather, the stalwart athletes approached by dint of substantial economic incentives in exchange for sexual favors, and so - apparently - was still well-liked (the bodybuilders were poor, apparently). Also arrived to open a jointly owned real male brothel on 42nd Street a gym, an activity that allowed him to go quietly at the end of his days. He died in 1980. The old friends of the Jenkins remember him as a character despicable, cowardly and exploiter, who used the dubious reputation of the diva as a springboard for a career that we have seen, but took quite different paths. However, the perfect companion for a woman who all'infondata the most childish vanity and delusions of grandeur, has built a unique, huge monument.
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