If everything you know about Florence Foster Jenkins comes from the 2016 Meryl Streep movie, hold on for some emotional whiplash, because Orlando-based multimedia musician Giselle Bellas has conjured the infamously off-key opera singer for a lesson in artistic empathy. Intermittently backed by a live band and interpretive dancers, and accompanied by eerie video clips, Bellas struggles to achieve success sharing her original music through the music industry, television and social media. As she crumbles under the weight of self-doubt, Jenkins’ disembodied voice serves as both antagonist and advocate, urging her to own her art and pursue her passion regardless of audiences’ reactions.
Bellas is a talented vocalist, as she demonstrates during a synthwave remix of Bizet’s Carmen, as well as a couple of sultry torch songs and contemplative ballads she wrote with Adam Tilzer, Emanuel Ayvas and Francisco Valentin Ocasio. However, more of her stage time is spent arguing with prerecorded monologues than singing, making the show’s structure seem scattershot.Perhaps I just wasn’t in the right headspace to properly appreciate this production, but with the world crumbling around us I found it hard to identify with Bellas’ self-generated existential angst, and found myself silently seconding Jenkins’ jibes at her unabashed self-indulgence. However, I have to admire her commitment to expressing herself through this audacious mix of live-action music video and talk therapy session. On one thing we can certainly agree: Neither Florence Foster Jenkins nor her spiritual successors deserve to be the mere butt of someone’s sarcastic joke.
Giselle’s Florence Foster Jenkins Schubertiade Review
Pink Venue, Lowndes Shakespeare Center
60 minutes; 13 & up
$15
Get tickets
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This article appears in May 14-20, 2025.