Movie Review: It's Like a Kind of Torture

Meryl Streep is Florence Foster Jenkins.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

She's the queen of the night: Meryl Streep vs. Mozart in Florence Foster Jenkins.
Photo © 2016 courtesy Pathé Pictures.

Every opera lover eventually learns the story of Florence Foster Jenkins, the matronly New York heiress whose charitable activities were equalled only by her own ambitions to become a leading coloratura soprano. In 1944, Mrs. Jenkins even gave a memorable recital at Carnegie Hall, that met with gales of audience laughter and lashings of critical scorn. She died soon after, and her ghost haunts every hoot, squawk and false note uttered by today's singers on the stage. She lives on as a kind of patron saint of poor performance and noble effort.