This photograph captures my wife in a restful moment on Thanksgiving Day (that’s her dad she’s leaning on) – but I’m afraid she’s not going to have too many moments like this in the next few weeks. Not with Carnegie Hall in her future! Yes, Kathy is going to be singing a solo recital at Carnegie Hall in late January . . . a program featuring a mix of art songs and opera arias, including such stratospheric showpieces as the Bell Song from Delibe’s Lakme (a well-known vehicle for the legendary Lily Pons) and Der Holle Rache from Mozart’s The Magic Flute (complete with four high F’s!) She is understandably nervous yet excited – and so am I.
By the way, did I mention that the aforementioned Carnegie Hall recital will actually be sung on the stage of the Racine Theater Guild as part of the play Glorious? This is a very entertaining as well as thought-provoking play about a woman named Florence Foster Jenkins who sang a now infamous recital at Carnegie Hall back in 1944. It was infamous because Ms. Jenkins walked on to that stage with all the confidence in the world and scarcely a speck of talent. What she did possess, however, in addition to her confidence, was money – and she rented Carnegie Hall in order to sing an ambitious program of arts songs and arias… and she wore some fairly outlandish gowns and costumes of her own design which made the recital even more unforgettable. . . to put it charitably. But what the people who were there will never forget is the excruciatingly awful quality of her singing. What possessed her to do such a thing? And what possessed her to go before the unforgiving microphones of a recording studio and leave tangible proof of just how talentless she was? This play raises those intriguing questions and more.
And my wife- who possesses one of the most beautiful alto voices I’ve ever heard- will be taking on the role of Florence Foster Jenkins and will have to do her level best to sing poorly. Actually, singing badly on purpose is not nearly as easy as you might think. Plenty of people do it accidentally or inadvertently, but to do a convincing job of singing badly requires some musical skill. And my wife has quite a knack for it , as she demonstrated in the auditions (for which I served as accompanist.) Everybody who auditioned was asked to sing their song seriously … and then after that they were to sing it a second time and, in director Norm McPhee’s words, “murder it.” I feel a little funny saying this, but it’s true- my wife sang her piece really beautifully, and then did an extraordinary job of singing that same song very, very badly without singing it too badly. Let me explain. Most people when asked to sing a song badly offer up the vocal equivalent of a little child banging nonsensically on a piano. But what Kathy managed to do, thanks to her musical skills, is to sing her piece (a lovely art song by Brahms) just enough out of tune to make your teeth ache – a half step flat here, a quarter step sharp there, and rhythmically just enough out of sync to make you seasick. It was excruciating – and exquisite! By the way, I just played for the auditions….. I had absolutely nothing to do with the casting choices of this or any other roles in the play. And I realize that I’m not exactly unbiased. But really and truly, my wife did a truly superb job of singing badly in the way that Ms. Foster Jenkins sang badly – not as a monotone who couldn’t carry a tune, but rather as someone cursed with a bit of a tin ear and an utterly ordinary voice, and without a speck of common sense when it came to what she was capable of singing. (Judging from the recordings she made, she probably should have sung nothing more challenging than “Happy Birthday.”)
Anyway, this role will be an absolutely delicious challenge for Kathy, both musically and theatrically, and I cannot wait to see her do this. After wonderful performances in both “Grand Night for Singing” and “Side by Side by Sondheim” that were quite serious singing affairs (in which she got to sing marvelous songs like “Send in the Clowns,” “Losing my mind,” “I’m Still Here,” and “Wonderful Guy” and got to sing them well) this will be her first real chance to fully strut her comic chops on the RTG stage….. aside from some hilarious work she did as one of the Pick a Little Talk a Little ladies in The Music Man. She was a hoot, but that was a long time ago- and I could not be more delighted that this opportunity is now coming her way. And I am excited, as well, that someone I know very well and admire very much – a colleague and friend- will be fulfilling the crucial role of Florence Foster Jenkins’ piano accompanist. I don’t think it’s my place to say anything more than that, other than to say that some students at Carthage won’t want to miss this. Also gracing the cast will be two superlative veterans of the Racine Theater Guild, and I know that Kathy is very excited about that as well.
So mark your calendars and grab your ear plugs for the last two weekends in January and the first weekend in February and get thee to the Racine Theater Guild for what promises to be a glorious night of fun.
p.s.- You can go on Youtube and listen to the real Florence Foster Jenkins. . . but you may want to keep some Pepto Bismoll handy, just in case.