Music Meets Drama

  Christmas Eve – the year 1906 - classical music was first broadcast on the radio from Brant Rock, Massachusetts.   Over the air-waves people heard a phonograph recording of Handel’s “Largo.” Reginald Fessenden and F.W. Alexanderson were the inventors’ team who created the broadcast with Fessenden closing the program with, “Merry Christmas.”   A few short years later in 1910 Enrico Caruso was heard live from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.   Radio became a major venue for classical music and by 1920 and into the 1930s programs such as “Bell Telephone Hour,” “Voice of Firestone,” and “Cities Service Concerts” filled the air with classical music.    Arturo Toscanini led the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Live broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera were heard.  These performances drew large audiences.    Families gathered around their radios to listen to great performances by the top classical musicians of the day. Those 20 years of...

  Six year ago the movie Florence Foster Jenkins starring Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant hit the big screen and was a hit.   Based on the play Souvenir which played Off-Broadway and Broadway starring Judy Kaye, both the play and movie highlight the life and singing career of New York City’s socialite Florence Foster Jenkins.     For decades singers and the public have been introduced to and listened to the recorded singing of Florence Foster Jenkins (1868-1944) which leads to uproarious laughter and head shaking disbelief that someone could possibly sound like that and be proud of it.   Her sense of pitch is precarious, correct rhythm was not in her personal music lexicon and phrasing did not seem to interest her.   Her recitals presented in her apartment or private clubs were by invitation only.   With over-the-top costumes designed by her and befitting the arias she was performing she added flowers, props and even some dancing.   Because ...