Florence Foster Jenkins Quotes

Florence Foster Jenkins was an American socialite and amateur soprano who was known, and mocked, for her flamboyant performance costumes and notably poor singing ability. Stephen Pile ranked her "the world's worst opera singer ... No one, before or since, has succeeded in liberating themselves quite so completely from the shackles of musical notation."Despite her technical incompetence, she became a prominent musical cult figure in New York City during the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. Cole Porter, Gian Carlo Menotti, Lily Pons, Sir Thomas Beecham, and other celebrities were fans. Enrico Caruso is said to have "regarded her with affection and respect".The poet William Meredith wrote that a Jenkins recital "was never exactly an aesthetic experience, or only to the degree that an early Christian among the lions provided aesthetic experience; it was chiefly immolatory, and Madame Jenkins was always eaten, in the end." Wikipedia

✵ 19. July 1868 – 26. November 1944

Florence Foster Jenkins: 1 quote0 likes

Florence Foster Jenkins Quotes

“People may say I can't sing, but no one can ever say I didn't sing.”

Florence Foster Jenkins

Attributed without citation in Vernon Alfred Howard, Charm and Speed: Virtuosity in the Performing Arts http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=qLXVeMzOvncC&pg=PA129&dq=%22People+may+say+I+can%27t+sing,+but+no+one+can+ever+say+I+didn%27t+sing.%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=V4nPUqCCMs2ThgeusoGwAw&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22People%20may%20say%20I%20can%27t%20sing%2C%20but%20no%20one%20can%20ever%20say%20I%20didn%27t%20sing.%22&f=false (2008), p. 129.