The Muse Surmounted: Florence Foster Jenkins and Eleven of Her Rivals

1	Carmen, opera: Potpourri / Georges Bizet
2	Fado Celestial / Portuguese Tradition
3	Reigen ("Sagt mir an, was / Carl Maria von Weber
4	Artaserse, opera: Va tra / Carl Heinrich Graun
5	Margitta, opera: Canzonet / Erik Meyer-Helmund
6	Manon, opera in 5 acts: J / Jules Massenet
7	Samson et Dalila, opera i / Camille Saint-Saëns
8	Il Trovatore, opera: Mise / Giuseppe Verdi
9	Aida, opera: Tomb Scene: / Giuseppe Verdi
10	Aida, opera: Act 4 (Excer / Giuseppe Verdi
11	Tosca, opera: Abridged Ex / Giacomo Puccini
12	Il barbiere di Siviglia ( / Gioachino Rossini
13	La Traviata, opera: Ah fo / Giuseppe Verdi
14	Darling Nelly Gray / Benjamin R. Hanby
15	Valse Caressante, for voi / Cosme McMoon
16	Cosme McMoon reminisces a / Spoken Word
The Muse Surmounted: Florence Foster Jenkins and Eleven of Her Rivals
1.	Carmen, opéra-comique in 4 acts: Potpourri 2:54
	Composed by Georges Bizet
	Performed by Homophone Orchestra
2.	Fado Celestial 2:37
	Composed by Portuguese Traditional
	Performed by Rosalina Mello
3.	Reigen ("Sagt mir an, was schmunzeit ihr"), song for voice & piano, J. 159 (Op. 30/5) 4:06
	Composed by Carl Maria von Weber
	Performed by David Garvey and Alice Gerstl Duschak
4.	Artaserse, opera: Va tra la selve 4:27
	Composed by Carl Heinrich Graun
	Performed by Betty-Jo Schramm
5.	Margitta, opera: Canzonetta 4:10
	Composed by Erik Meyer-Helmund
	Performed by Tryphosa Bates-Batcheller
6.	Manon, comic opera in 5 acts: Je marche 2:58
	Composed by Jules Massenet
	Performed by Natalia de Andrade
7.	Samson et Dalila, opera in 3 acts, Op. 47: Bacchanale 1:08
	Composed by Camille Saint-Saëns
	Performed by Homophone Orchestra
8.	Il Trovatore, opera: Miserere 4:56
	Composed by Giuseppe Verdi
	Performed by LaPuma Opera Workshop Orchestra and Olive Middleton
9.	Aida, opera: Tomb Scene: The Fatal Stone 6:36
	Composed by Giuseppe Verdi
	Performed by Allen Rogers and Norma-Jean Erdmann-Chadbourne
10.	Aida, opera: Act 4 (Excerpt) 4:02
	Composed by Giuseppe Verdi
	Performed by Sylvia Sawyer
11.	Tosca, opera: Abridged Excerpt 7:57
	Composed by Giacomo Puccini
	Performed by Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra and Vassilka Petrova
	Conducted by Emidio Tieri
12.	Il barbière di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville), opera: Una voce poco fa 7:22
	Composed by Gioachino Rossini
	Performed by Mari Lyn
13.	La Traviata, opera: Ah fors e lui; Sempre libera 7:49
	Composed by Giuseppe Verdi
	Performed by Sari Bunchuk Wontner
14.	Darling Nelly Gray 2:37
	Composed by Benjamin R. Hanby
	Performed by Tryphosa Bates-Batcheller
15.	Valse Caressante, for voice, flute & piano 6:52
	Composed by Cosme McMoon
	Performed by Cosme McMoon, Florence Foster Jenkins and Louis Alberghini
16.	Cosme McMoon reminisces about Florence Foster Jenkins 7:47
	Composed by Spoken Word
	Performed by Cosme McMoon

All Music Guide

Operatic kitsch has never been so splendidly celebrated as it is in "The Muse Surmounted" -- a wildly entertaining horror show of vocal ambitions gone very, very wrong. Taking its lead from the impossibly shrill, off-key recordings of Florence Foster Jenkins, whose self-financed 1944 Carnegie Hall concert remains one of the wildest events ever to occur there, TMS gathers together the very worst that vanity recordings have to offer and wraps it up in a loving, if tongue-in-cheek, celebration of blind musical ambition. If you want to hear women in their eighties who don't know the meaning of "quit," thickly Queens-accented socialites bulldozing the Italian language, free-form approximations of "La traviata," and unspeakable acts of intonation, you've come to the right place. Natalia de Andrade's violent rendition of Manon's "Je marche" turns Massenet's teenaged coquette into a dominatrix for the AARP set; Norma-Jean and Ellis Chadbourne's tag-team "educational" LP entitled "The Art of Messa di Voce Singing" sounds more like Snow White strangling a dwarf; Mari Lyn valorously declares her intentions to return Rossini's "Una voce poco fa" to its historically correct roots in a N'York-speak introduction, and then proceeds to re-compose what little of it she can sing; Tryphosa Bates-Batcheller bravely ignores the limits of her vocal range as she sings parts of "Darling Nelly Gray" a full step flat in brassy blare; and Sari Bunchuk Wontner's (no, these names are not made up) "Sempre libera" -- recorded surreptitiously by a family friend during a fully staged performance of "La traviata" in her home -- is completely unrecognizable. But, proving that she is still queen of the socialite divas, Florence Foster Jenkins takes top honors with her "Valse Caressante," written expressly for her by her longtime accompanist Cosme McMoon (again, real names folks...), whose description of his work with "Madame Jenkins" on the last track bring the great lady's extravagances to life in reminiscent Technicolor. The note-writer's allegation that McMoon paid bodybuilders for sexual favors, and indeed ran a brothel of sorts out of a Manhattan gym, makes the final-page bonus photo of McMoon with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Franco Colombu a real brow-raiser. Allen Schrott