Florence Foster Jenkins And Friends Murder On The High Cs Music Cd

Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra - Florence Foster Jenkins And Friends Murder On The High Cs

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Florence Foster Jenkins & Friends: Murder on the High Cs      Artist(s) : John Charles Thomas, John Charles Thomes, Robert Merrill, Alexander Kipnis, Ezio Pinza, Florence Foster Jenkins, Jack Barnett, Earl Cahn Sammy / Brent, Felicien David, Leo Delibes      List Price : $9.98 USD        ProductGroup: Music      Release Date : 2003-09-23      Studio : Naxos      Label : Naxos      Avg. Customer Rating : (6 reviews)

Reviews Customer Reviews for Florence Foster Jenkins And Friends Murder On The High Cs      The amazing singing career of Florence Foster Jenkins...it's more like the score from a Marx Brothers movie...      Rating:      The review of mr. Pollock, who rated this product only one star, got me thinking. Yes, I like a good laugh as much as the rest of you and yes: Mrs. Florence Foster Jenkins's musical offerings are so g*dawful bad it is almost unbelievably funny but.... But there is also the fact that the gormless creature herself apparently sincerely and steadfastly believed she possessed loads of talent! She really was convinced that she was Maria Malibran, Giuditta Pasta, Jenny Lind and Dame Nellie Melba, all rolled into one. It seems she truly and honestly never noticed or even suspected how cruelly her leg was being pulled by her "adoring audience". Tickets to her few annual "recitals" in the foyer of the New York Ritz hotel were highly sought after. This fact makes always makes me a bit uncomfortable when listening to Mrs. FFJ. On the one hand I can't help wincing and laughing to myself at her preposterous attempts at "diva-dom" and yet there's also that ever so slight frisson of guilty embarrassment of laughing at someone behind his, or in this case her, back. Which mostly isn't actually all that funny, but rather cheap and easy. Someone close Mrs. FFJ ought off course to have had the balls to tell her to stop making such a silly spectacle exhibition of herself. No one ever did and she happily lived on in her self-created and self-funded (thanks to inheriting a whopping great fortune) charade. It must have been very drôle to hear her and to watch her, for during her recitals this portly and middle-aged lady dressed up in the most incredibly stereotypical and over-the-top Opera costumes. The audience was treated to a parade of fantastic, beached whale-like Carmens, Brunhildes, Queens-of-the-Night-from-the-Magic-Flute, Greek godesses, Vestal virgins, Warrior Queens and so on, complete with sceptres, crowns, tiaras, spears, shields and swords and horned helmets. Still, I do wonder: didn't anyone in the audience find it the slightest bit painful or embarrassing, to make fun of the silly old moo? On the other hand, she was fully compos mentis and willingly chose to make such a caricature of herself for more than 30 years. She payed it all out of her own money and she did nobody any harm with it. Indeed, the proceeds of her appearances were generously donated to various good causes, along with hefty amounts of her own money!! In the end one has to admit that mrs. FFJ did what few of us can do or dare to do: she lived out her dream of being a diva. Good for her! Mrs. FFJ reminds me of those characters the great Margaret Dumont used to play in those 30s and 40s Marx Brothers films, you know the type: the rather stout, benign, rich, none too bright, hoity-toity dowager and socialite, who falls victim to the most relentless piss-taking by Groucho, Chico, Harpo, Sleepy, Dopey, Doc and Bashful. So enjoy this but spare a thought for Mrs. FFJ. People applauded her in her face, but laughed at her behind her back. Not very nice that. I deducted one star for that.     Customer Reviews for Florence Foster Jenkins And Friends Murder On The High Cs Cd      Must be heard to be believed      Rating:      Even the brilliant Judy Kaye in the recent play "Souvenir" about Ms. Jenkins couldn't quite match the unique sound of this singer, although she came close. For those who like this sort of thing, this is the real thing. The sound on this Naxos CD is superior to RCA's "Glory of the Human Voice??" which covers most of the same territory. The Naxos CD also restores the piano intro to the Bell Song and the heretofore rare Valse Caressante of which only a few pressings are known to exist. That said, the rest of the (non-Florence) cuts are mostly forgettable. More kitch than camp. Annoying music abounds but the in the realm of the truly, stupendously awful Florence Foster Jenkins remains in a class by herself. No one can really compete with Ms. Jenkins on her own camp grounds and there is no sense in trying. The one exception being the sung "Blue Danube" with Josephine Tumminia and the Jimmy Dorsey orchestra which falls in the "what could they have been thinking?" department. Personally a little of this sort of thing goes a long way. The Faust Travesty on the RCA set holds a bit more interest (but not all that much). I think a more interesting compliation would consist of "straight" renderings of the various arias and pieces contrasted with Madame Florence's so the listener may fully savor what she achieves in these performances. Florence gets five stars but the rest of it gets a minus one, so it ends up with four.