Florence Foster Jenkins was and is a phenomenon. In the 1940s, the wealthy American heiress not only passionately sang the classics of opera in front of a torn New York audience, but also sang them wrong, to the mercy! But criticism and doubts could not shake Florence. What initially began with small soirées ended with a legendary concert in the sold out and raging Carnegie Hall. Florence Foster Jenkins was a star in her own way. Her recordings still enjoy cult status today.
The diva of disonance
Florence Foster Jenkins' biography is so extraordinary that it could be an invention in every detail. But her life just happened as Stephen Temperley told it in his Broadway hit SOUVENIR. In his piece, Temperley shows a woman inspired by art, who does not allow anything or anyone to dissuade her from her infinite love of music. The linchpin of the story is Cosme McMoon, the pianist who accompanied her at her concerts for twelve years. Initially full of skepticism and guided by purely financial, pragmatic considerations, he is increasingly involved in the world and bizarre point of view of his stage partner.
And gradually McMoon understands what makes the special attraction of the singer Foster Jenkins: her absolute and unshakable devotion to music.
