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Florence Foster Jenkins (July 19, 1868–November 26, 1944) was an American socialite and amateur operatic soprano who was known and ridiculed for her lack of rhythm, pitch, and tone; her aberrant pronunciation; and her generally poor singing ability. ==Personal life== Born Narcissa Florence Foster in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Mary Jane (née Hoagland 1851–1930) and Charles Dorrance Foster (1836–1909).〔Donald Collup and Gregor Benko: ''Florence Foster Jenkins: A World of Her Own'', DVD, 2008.〕 She had one sibling, a sister named Lillian, who died at age 8 in 1883. She dropped her first name and went by her middle name, Florence, during her formative years. Her father was a lawyer, and his family was wealthy and owned land near Back Mountain, Pennsylvania.〔(Opera singer's family owned land ) accessed 3/28/2015〕〔(Foster biography ) accessed 3/28/2015〕 Jenkins received piano lessons as a child and, after becoming a child prodigy pianist, performed all over the state of Pennsylvania, appearing in Sängerfests and even at the White House during the administration of President Rutherford B. Hayes.〔 Upon graduating from high school, she expressed a desire to go abroad to study music, but her wealthy father refused to pay the bill, so she retaliated and eloped with Dr. Frank Thornton Jenkins (1852–1917) and they moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They were married around 1885.〔 Shortly after their marriage, Jenkins contracted syphilis from her husband and Dr. Jenkins was never mentioned again. It is not known whether they obtained a divorce or separated, but she kept his family name as her own.〔 Jenkins earned a living in Philadelphia as a piano teacher, but after suffering an arm injury, she had no means to support herself and lived in near poverty. She was very close to her mother, Mary, who came to Foster's rescue and the two eventually moved to New York City around 1900. It is then that she decided to become a singer.〔 In 1909, she met a British Shakespearean actor named St. Clair Bayfield (later her manager) and they later legalized the relationship in a common-law marriage that would last the rest of her life.〔Peters, Brooks, "(Florence, The Nightingale? )," June 15, 2006 (also appeared, but in slightly different format, in ''Opera News'' magazine) 〕 When her father died in 1909,〔 Jenkins inherited sufficient funds to begin her long-delayed career in music. She took voice lessons and became involved in the musical social circles of New York City, where she founded and funded her own club, The Verdi Club. She became a member of dozens of women's clubs – literary, historical, etc. and she became Director of Music for many of these, as well as their producer of tableaux-vivants. The most well-known photograph of Jenkins shows her wearing angelic wings. This costume was designed for a tableau-vivant she produced, based on the painting ''Stephen Foster and the Angel of Inspiration'' by Howard Chandler Christy. It was also said that in every group of tableaux-vivants that she produced for the clubs, she would always be the main character in the final tableau of the group.〔 She began giving recitals in 1912, when she was in her early 40s.〔 Her mother Mary died in New York City at the Park Central Hotel in 1930, after which Jenkins inherited additional resources to continue her singing career.〔(Foster family tree ), wargs.com; accessed March 28, 2015.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Florence Foster Jenkins」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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