Henry wrote:I now find myself, surprisingly, much more sympathetic to the lady than I ever was before I learned of her affliction with STD, and the terrible effects of both the disease and the attempted remedies. Surely these factors affected her judgement and behavior. Assuming that she was indeed a talented pianist in her youth, it is difficult for me to square her later performances with that background. But I know from my teaching and performing experiences that musical ability comes in all kinds of proportions and strengths. I once had a very talented and advanced instrumentalist in a music theory class, who was an absolute whiz on her instrument but who could not take a major scale from dictation; indeed, she was practically tone deaf. Another student, a pianist, had perfect pitch but "imperfect everything else," in the words of a colleague. I cite these two examples as relevant to the phenomenon that was Florence Foster Jenkins. In view of the good things that she did in support of the cause of promoting classical music by her other activities, and in consideration of her illness, I'm inclined to give the lady a pass.
Here-here.
