77-698: Narcissa may refer to: People with the given name [ edit ] Florence Foster Jenkins , born Narcissa Florence Foster, American socialite and amateur soprano Narcissa California Gibson , American farmer, rancher, and politician Narcissa White Kinney , American temperance worker Narcissa Chisholm Owen , Native American educator, memoirist, and artist Narcissa Niblack Thorne (1882–1966), American artist Narcissa Cox Vanderlip , American suffragist Narcissa Whitman (1808–1847), American missionary Narcissa Wright (born 1989), American speedrunner Other uses [ edit ] Narcissa, Oklahoma ,
154-421: A camp , and that this was a way of projecting one's own queer sensibility upon the world to therefore reclaim it. Conversely, he argued, the biggest threat to camp wasn't heterosexuals ("who tend to accept it, although usually at a fairly broad and superficial level"), but "a neo-puritanism, a received conformism" emerging among gay people at the time. The rise of postmodernism and queer theory has made camp
231-552: A coping mechanism to deal with intolerance and marginalization in society. In his 1972 book Gay Talk , writer Bruce Rodgers traces the term camp to 16th century British theatre, where it referred to men dressed as women ( drag ). Camp may have derived from the gay slang Polari , which borrowed the term from the Italian campare, or from the French term se camper , meaning "to pose in an exaggerated fashion". A similar sense
308-494: A queer sensibility upon the world and unite one's peers in that sensibility. The first post-World War II use of the word in print may be Christopher Isherwood 's 1954 novel The World in the Evening , where he comments: "You can't camp about something you don't take seriously. You're not making fun of it; you're making fun out of it. You're expressing what's basically serious to you in terms of fun and artifice and elegance." In
385-407: A 21st-century incarnation of camp style. Geri Halliwell is recognized as a camp icon for her high camp aesthetics, performance style and kinship with the gay community during her time as a solo artist. Dancer, singer and actress Josephine Baker has been described as camp. Her famous banana dress has been noted as particularly camp for its flamboyant, humorous and ironic qualities, as well as
462-461: A 33-year-old British actor named St. Clair Bayfield (1875–1967); they began a vaguely defined cohabitation relationship that continued the rest of her life. Upon her father's death later that year, Jenkins became the beneficiary of a sizable trust, and resolved to resume her musical career as a singer with Bayfield as her manager. She began taking voice lessons and immersed herself in wealthy New York City society, joining dozens of social clubs. As
539-556: A Jenkins recital "was never exactly an aesthetic experience, or only to the degree that an early Christian among the lions provided aesthetic experience; it was chiefly immolatory, and Madame Jenkins was always eaten, in the end." Narcissa Florence Foster was born July 19, 1868, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania , the daughter of Charles Dorrance Foster (1836–1909), an attorney and scion of a wealthy land-owning Pennsylvania family, and Mary Jane Hoagland Foster (1851–1930). Her only sibling,
616-435: A banana dress in reference to Josephine Baker and dedicated a whole collection to her. He used mismatched buttons when creating his own take on a Chanel suit. By the time he died in 1990, he had dressed noted queer icons such as Grace Jones and Isabella Rossellini . His grave is marked with a stylized golliwog —a reclaimed symbol for his label—featuring big gold earrings and bright red lips. The 2019 Met Gala 's theme
693-477: A camp reading of French composer Francis Poulenc 's Concerto for Two Pianos in D minor , noting its combination of a Balinese gamelan with a sense of "musical resignation and longing". Musicologist Raymond Knapp has compared musical camp to jazz, especially in camp's playfulness and admiration for its subjects, which can seem mocking but often borders on veneration. He argues that musical camp draws attention to its performativity and inspirations, while engaging
770-467: A common perspective on aesthetics, not solely identified with gay men. Women (especially lesbians ), trans people, and people of colour have described new forms of camp , such as dyke camp (including subcategories such as cubana and high-femme dyke camp ) and queer of color camp . Camp has also been a subject of psychoanalytic theory , where it has been portrayed as a form of performance or masquerade . Scholar Cynthia Morrill has argued that
847-456: A copy. The selections include four coloratura arias from operas by Mozart, Delibes , Johann Strauss II, and Félicien David , and five art songs, two written for Jenkins by her accompanist, Cosmé McMoon. Seven of the selections were released on RCA Victor LRT-7000, a 10-inch LP in 1954, and reissued on RCA Victor LM-2597, a 12-inch LP in 1962, The Glory (????) of the Human Voice (includes
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#1732895358568924-601: A dance routine, muttering to herself in a broad Australian accent, "Mum says I have to practice if I want to be on Australian Idol ." In the UK, the music hall tradition of pantomime , which often uses drag and other features of camp , remains a popular form of entertainment for families and young children. Most towns and cities in the UK stage at least one pantomime between November and February, drawing in an estimated £146 million in 2014. The words camp and kitsch are often used interchangeably, though they are distinct. Camp
1001-718: A different kind of aesthetic engagement. Camp art is distinct from but often confused with kitsch . The American writer Susan Sontag emphasized its key elements as embracing frivolity, excess and artifice. Art historian David Carrier notes that, despite these qualities, it is also subversive and political. Camp may be sophisticated, but subjects deemed camp may also be perceived as being dated, offensive or in bad taste . Camp may also be divided into high and low camp (i.e., camp arising from serious versus unserious matters), or alternatively into naive and deliberate camp (i.e., accidental versus intentional camp). While author and academic Moe Meyer defines camp as
1078-821: A form of "queer parody", journalist Jack Babuscio argues it is a specific "gay sensibility" which has often been "misused to signify the trivial, superficial and 'queer'". Camp , as a particular style or set of mannerisms, may serve as a marker of identity, such as in camp talk , which expresses a gay male identity. This camp style is associated with incongruity or juxtaposition , theatricality, and humour , and has appeared in film, cabaret , and pantomime . Both high and low forms of culture may be camp , but where high art incorporates beauty and value, camp often strives to be lively, audacious and dynamic. Camp can also be tragic , sentimental and ironic, finding beauty or black comedy even in suffering. The humour of camp , as well as its frivolity, may serve as
1155-511: A high F, however. At the age of 76, Jenkins finally yielded to public demand and booked Carnegie Hall for a general-admission performance that took place on October 25, 1944. Tickets for the event sold out weeks in advance; the demand was such that an estimated 2,000 people were turned away at the door of the 2,800-seat venue. Numerous celebrities attended, including Porter, Marge Champion , Gian Carlo Menotti , Kitty Carlisle , and Lily Pons with her husband, Andre Kostelanetz , who composed
1232-404: A hot pink Brandon Maxwell gown with a 25-foot train and went through a series of four "reveals," paying homage to drag culture , debuting a new outfit each time, until reaching her final look: a bra and underwear with fishnets and platform heels. Other notable ensembles included Katy Perry wearing a gown that looked like a chandelier, designed by Moschino ; and Kacey Musgraves appearing as
1309-404: A life-size Barbie , also by Moschino. Famous representatives of camp films are, for example, John Waters ( Pink Flamingos , 1972) and Rosa von Praunheim ( The Bed Sausage , 1971) , who mainly used this style in the 1970s, and who created films which achieved cult status . The 1972 musical Cabaret is also seen as an example of the aesthetic, with film critic Esther Leslie describing
1386-511: A particular style and affectation. By 1870, British crossdresser Frederick Park referred to his "campish undertakings" in a letter produced in evidence at his examination before a magistrate at Bow Street , London, on suspicion of illegal homosexual acts; the letter does not make clear what these were. In 1909, the Oxford English Dictionary gave the first print citation of camp , described as an "etymologically obscure" use of
1463-490: A perversely sophisticated appeal". In America, the concept of camp was also described by Christopher Isherwood in 1954 in his novel The World in the Evening , and later by Susan Sontag in her 1964 essay ' Notes on "Camp" '. Two key components of the "radical spectacle of camp" were originally feminine performances: swish and drag . With swish's extensive use of superlatives and drag's exaggerated female impersonation, camp occasionally became extended to all things "over
1540-544: A physician 16 years her senior, in Philadelphia (in 1880, the age of consent for marriage in Pennsylvania was ten). The following year, after learning that she had contracted syphilis from her husband, she ended their relationship and reportedly never spoke of him again. Foster resided at The Newport , built in 1897 in Philadelphia at 1530–1532 Spruce Street, on the southeast corner of 16th. The 9-story luxurious high-rise
1617-631: A place in the United States Narcissa D-X Gas Station Narcissa Malfoy , fictional character in the Harry Potter universe See also [ edit ] All pages with titles containing Narcissa Narcisa (disambiguation) Narciso , a given name Narcisse (disambiguation) Narcissus (disambiguation) Narcis (disambiguation) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with
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#17328953585681694-476: A power now in decline. As opposed to kitsch, camp reappropriates culture in an ironic fashion, whereas kitsch is indelibly sincere. Additionally, kitsch may be seen as a quality of an object, while camp "tends to refer to a subjective process". Those who identify objects as "camp" note the distance often apparent in the process through which "unexpected value can be located in some obscure or exorbitant object." In its subversiveness and irony, camp can also suggest
1771-437: A recital. The question of whether "Lady Florence"—as she liked to be called, and often signed her autographs —was in on the joke, or honestly believed she had vocal talent, remains a matter of debate. On the one hand, she compared herself favorably with renowned sopranos Frieda Hempel and Luisa Tetrazzini , and seemed oblivious to the abundant audience laughter during her performances. Her loyal friends endeavored to disguise
1848-450: A semblance of pitch, but the further a note was from its proper elevation the more the audience laughed and applauded." The New York Post was even less charitable: "Lady Florence ... indulged last night in one of the weirdest mass jokes New York has ever seen." Five days after the concert, Jenkins suffered a heart attack while shopping at G. Schirmer's music store, and died a month later on November 26, 1944, at her Manhattan residence,
1925-522: A song for the recital. McMoon later recalled a moment: "[When she sang] 'If my silhouette does not convince you yet / My figure surely will' [from Adele's aria in Die Fledermaus ], she put her hands righteously to her hips and went into a circular dance that was the most ludicrous thing I have ever seen. And created a pandemonium in the place. One famous actress had to be carried out of her box because she became so hysterical." Since ticket distribution
2002-417: A wicker basket of flowers, clicking the castanets and tossing the flowers one by one. When she ran out of flowers, she flung the basket too—and then the castanets. Her fans, aware that "Clavelitos" was her favorite song, would usually demand an encore, prompting her to send McMoon into the audience to retrieve flowers, basket, and castanets so that she could sing the number again. Once when a taxi in which she
2079-618: A younger sister named Lillian, died of diphtheria in 1883 at the age of eight. Foster said her interest in public performance began when she was seven years old. A pianist, she performed at society functions as "Little Miss Foster", and gave a recital at the White House during the administration of Rutherford B. Hayes . Foster attended the Moravian Seminary for Young Ladies in Bethlehem, Pa. from September 1881 to March 1882, where she
2156-517: Is also considered camp and according to educator Carol Queen , her "whole career up to and including Sex has depended heavily on camp imagery and camp understandings of gender and sex". Madonna has also been named "Queen of Camp". In public and on stage, Dusty Springfield developed an image supported by her peroxide blonde beehive hairstyle, evening gowns , and heavy make-up that included her much-copied "panda eye" look. Springfield borrowed elements of her look from blonde glamour queens of
2233-524: Is also found in French theatre in Molière 's 1671 play Les Fourberies de Scapin . Writer Susan Sontag and linguist Paul Baker place the "soundest starting point" for the modern sense of camp , meaning flamboyant , as the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Writer Anthony Burgess theorized it may have emerged from the primary sense of the word , as in a military encampment, where gay men would subtly advertize their sexuality in all-male company through
2310-499: Is always a way of consuming or performing culture "in quotation marks". Sontag also distinguishes between naïve and deliberate camp , and examines Christopher Isherwood's distinction between low camp — which he associated with cross-dressing and drag performances — and high camp — which included "the whole emotional basis of the Ballet, for example, and of course of Baroque art". High camp has also been used to describe drag that
2387-460: Is an aesthetic and sensibility that regards something as appealing or amusing because of its heightened level of artifice, affectation and exaggeration, especially when there is also a playful or ironic element. Camp is historically associated with LGBTQ+ culture and especially gay men . Camp aesthetics disrupt modernist understandings of high art by inverting traditional aesthetic judgements of beauty, value, and taste, and inviting
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2464-542: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Florence Foster Jenkins Florence Foster Jenkins (born Narcissa Florence Foster ; July 19, 1868 – November 26, 1944) was an American socialite and amateur soprano who became known, and mocked, for her flamboyant performance costumes and notably poor singing ability. Stephen Pile ranked her "the world's worst opera singer ... No one, before or since, has succeeded in liberating themselves quite so completely from
2541-450: Is more subtle or ironic, as opposed to drag that is more parodic and obvious (and thus low camp ). According to sociologist Andrew Ross , camp combines outmoded and contemporary forms of style, fashion, and technology. Often characterized by the reappropriation of a "throwaway Pop aesthetic", camp works to intermingle the categories of "high" and "low" culture. Objects may become camp objects because of their historical association with
2618-563: Is renowned for his use of camp in interpreting the works of the Western canon , including Shakespeare , Wagner , Molière , Seneca and Kafka . His 2006 eight-hour production for the Sydney Theatre Company The Lost Echo was based on Ovid 's Metamorphoses and Euripides 's The Bacchae . In the first act ("The Song of Phaeton"), for instance, the goddess Juno takes the form of a highly stylized Marlene Dietrich , and
2695-489: Is rooted in a specifically queer sensibility, informed by queer identity and culture , whereas kitsch is rooted in the rise of mass-produced art and popular culture for the mainstream. Both terms may relate to an object or work that carries aesthetic value, but kitsch refers specifically to the work itself, whereas camp is a sensibility as well as a mode of performance. A person may consume kitsch intentionally or unintentionally, but camp , as Susan Sontag observed,
2772-516: Is still in operation as of 2024. Years later, she claimed to have been granted a divorce decree on March 24, 1902, although no documentation of any such ruling has been found. She retained the Jenkins surname for the remainder of her life. After an arm injury ended her aspirations as a pianist, Jenkins gave piano lessons in Philadelphia to support herself, but around 1900 she moved with her mother to New York City. In 1909, in her early forties, Jenkins met
2849-504: The alienation of LGBTQ+ people from the mainstream to maintain its edge. Poet and scholar Chris Philpot, like Cooperman, nevertheless argues that camp can still be a viable "survival strategy" for marginalized queer people, so long as it evolves with them. Curator Andrew Bolton, after his show Camp: Notes on Fashion at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art , explains that context is also important for understanding
2926-423: The hip-hop genre—designed seven camp outfits for Gucci , worn at the gala by 21 Savage , Omari Hardwick , Regina Hall , Bevy Smith , Ashley Graham and Karlie Kloss (he wore the seventh). Lady Gaga's entrance took 16 minutes, as she arrived to the gala alongside an entourage of five dancers carrying umbrellas, a make up artist, and a personal photographer to snap pictures of Gaga's poses. Gaga arrived in
3003-517: The " Last Night of the Proms " has been said to glory in "nostalgia, camp, and pastiche". Camp still forms a strong element in UK culture, and many so-called gay icons and objects are chosen as such because they are camp, including musicians such as Elton John , Kylie Minogue , Lulu , and Mika . Musicologist Philip Brett has highlighted campness in the work of Benjamin Britten and has also argued for
3080-497: The "chairman of music" for many of these organizations, she began producing lavish tableaux vivants , popular diversions in upper-crust social circles of that era. In each of these productions, Jenkins would cast herself as the main character in the final tableau, wearing an elaborate costume of her own design. In a widely republished photograph, Jenkins poses in a costume, complete with angelic wings, from her tableau inspired by Howard Chandler Christy 's painting Stephen Foster and
3157-433: The 1950s, such as Brigitte Bardot and Catherine Deneuve . This, her singing style and her sexuality made her a "camp icon" and won her a following in the gay community. Besides the prototypical female drag queen , she was presented in the roles of the "Great White Lady" of pop and soul, and the "Queen of Mods ". Rappers such as Lil' Kim , Nicki Minaj and Cam'ron have all been described as camp, often because of
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3234-995: The 1950s. However, critics of Sontag's description, such as art historian David Carrier , say that it is outdated and that "her celebration of its ecstatic marginality downplays its implicit subversiveness". In Mark Booth's 1983 book Camp , he defines camp as "to present oneself as being committed to the marginal with a commitment greater than the marginal merits". He makes a distinction between genuine camp , and camp fads and fancies — things that are not intrinsically camp, but display artificiality, stylization, theatricality, naivety, sexual ambiguity, tackiness, poor taste, stylishness, or camp people, and thus appeal to them. In his 1984 book Camp: The Lie That Tells The Truth , writer and artist Philip Core describes Jean Cocteau 's autobiography as "the definition of camp". In 1993, journalist Russell Davies published comedian Kenneth Williams ' diaries. Williams' diary entry for 1 January 1947 reads: "Went to Singapore with Stan—very camp evening,
3311-452: The American writer Susan Sontag 's 1964 essay Notes on "Camp" , Sontag emphasized the embrace of artifice, frivolity, naivety, pretentiousness, offensiveness, and excess as key elements of camp. Examples cited by Sontag included Tiffany lamps , the drawings of Aubrey Beardsley , Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake , and Japanese science fiction films such as Rodan and The Mysterians of
3388-517: The Angel of Inspiration . Jenkins began giving private vocal recitals in 1912 when she was 44 years old. In 1917, she became founder and President Soprano Hostess of her own social organization, the Verdi Club. Its membership quickly swelled to over 400; honorary members included Enrico Caruso and Geraldine Farrar . When Jenkins's mother died in 1930, additional financial resources became available for
3465-563: The English comedy skit show Little Britain . From the mid-1940s, numerous representations of camp speech or camp talk , as used by gay men, began to appear in print in America, France and the United Kingdom. By the mid-1970s, camp was defined by the college edition of Webster's New World Dictionary as "banality, mediocrity, artifice, [and] ostentation ... so extreme as to amuse or have
3542-581: The Hotel Seymour. She was buried next to her father in the Foster mausoleum, Hollenback Cemetery, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania . Some of Jenkins's performance difficulties have been attributed to untreated syphilis , which causes progressive deterioration of the central nervous system in its tertiary stage . Nerve damage and other morbidities caused by the disease may have been compounded by toxic side effects—such as hearing loss—from mercury and arsenic ,
3619-539: The Verdi Club's annual "Ball of the Silver Skylarks" in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel's Grand Ballroom. Attendance, by personal invitation only, was restricted to her loyal clubwomen and a select few others. Jenkins handled distribution of the coveted tickets herself, carefully excluding strangers, particularly music critics. "There's no way she could not have known," said Schuman. "No one is that unaware ... she loved
3696-574: The audience interactively in the process of creating meaning. Thomas Dworzak published a collection of "last portrait" photographs of young Taliban soldiers about to depart for the front, found in Kabul photo studios. The book, titled Taliban , attests to a campy aesthetic, quite close to the gay movement in California or a Peter Greenaway film. The Comedy Central television show Strangers with Candy (1999–2000), starring comedian Amy Sedaris ,
3773-447: The audience reaction and she loved singing. But she knew." Despite her careful efforts to insulate her singing from public exposure, a majority of critics favored the view that Jenkins's self-delusion was genuine. "At that time Frank Sinatra had started to sing, and the teenagers used to faint during his notes and scream," McMoon told an interviewer. "So she thought she was producing the same kind of an effect." "Florence didn't think she
3850-467: The camp in the film thus: Camp thrives on tragic gestures, on lament at the transience of life, on an excess of sentiment, an ironic sensibility that art and artifice is preferable to nature and health, in a Wildean sense. Australian writer/director Baz Luhrmann's Red Curtain Trilogy , in particular the film Strictly Ballroom (1992), has been described as camp. The term camp is also used prominently in
3927-443: The conception of "camp-as-masquerade" ignores the specifically queer sensibility of camp by interrogating queerness through a heteronormative lens (i.e., solely in relation to the symbol of the phallus ). Camp has become prevalent in mainstream popular entertainment such as theatre, cinema, TV and music. In reaction to its popularisation, critics such as Jack Babuscio and Jeanette Cooperman have argued that camp requires
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#17328953585684004-656: The contest has shown an increasing attraction within the LGBTQ+ communities—in their stage performances. This is especially true during the televised finale, which is screened live across Europe. As it is a visual show, many Eurovision performances attempt to attract the attention of voters through means other than the music, which sometimes leads to bizarre onstage gimmicks, and what some critics have called "the Eurovision kitsch drive", with almost cartoonish novelty acts performing. The Australian theatre and opera director Barrie Kosky
4081-476: The expansion and promotion of her singing career. According to published reviews and other contemporary accounts, Jenkins's proficiency at the piano did not translate well to her singing. She is described as having great difficulty with such basic vocal skills as pitch, rhythm, and sustaining notes and phrases. In recordings, her accompanist Cosmé McMoon can be heard making adjustments to compensate for her constant tempo variations and rhythmic mistakes, but there
4158-766: The horror genre, with examples including Killer Klowns from Outer Space , or The Evil Dead franchise. Dandyism is often seen as a precursor to camp, especially as embodied in Oscar Wilde and his work. The character of Amarinth in Robert Hichens ' The Green Carnation (1894), based on Wilde, uses "camp coding" in his "effusive and inverted" use of language. The scene where Anthony Blanche arrives late to Sebastian Flyte's lunch party in Evelyn Waugh 's Brideshead Revisited , has been described by writer George Melly as an example of camp 's "alchemical ability" to project
4235-655: The laughter with cheers and applause; they often described her technique to curious inquirers in "intentionally ambiguous" terms. For example, "her singing at its finest suggests the untrammeled swoop of some great bird". Favorable articles and bland reviews, published in specialty music publications such as The Musical Courier , were most likely written by her friends or herself. "I would say that she maybe didn't know [how badly she sang]," said mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne . "We can't hear ourselves as others hear us." Nerve damage due to syphilis and its treatment (see below ) may have physically compromised her hearing as well. On
4312-490: The musical arrangements feature Noël Coward and Cole Porter . Kosky's use of camp is also effectively employed to satirize the pretensions, manners, and cultural vacuity of Australia's suburban middle class , which is suggestive of the style of Dame Edna Everage . For example, in The Lost Echo , Kosky employs a chorus of high school students: one girl in the chorus takes leave from the goddess Diana, and begins to rehearse
4389-679: The non-Jenkins recording of A Faust Travesty by Jenny Williams and Thomas Burns). The material has since been reissued in various combinations on four CDs: Jenkins commissioned filming of her performances at the Verdi Club's signature annual event, the "Ball of the Silver Skylarks", held each October at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. All were thought lost until copies of the 1934 through 1939 and 1941 films were discovered in 2009. Jenkins historian Donald Collup has announced plans to feature excerpts from her filmed performances in an upcoming documentary. Sources Camp (style) Camp
4466-405: The opulence and winking humour of their personas. Dapper Dan has been credited with introducing high fashion and camp to hip hop. In pop and rock, musicians Prince and Jimi Hendrix have also been called camp because of their flamboyance and playful use of artifice. South Korean rapper Psy , known for his viral internet music videos full of flamboyant dance and visuals, has come to be seen as
4543-553: The other hand, Jenkins refused to open her performances to the general public, and was clearly aware of her detractors. "People may say I can't sing," she once remarked to a friend, "but no one can ever say I didn't sing." She dismissed her original accompanist, Edwin McArthur , after catching him giving her audience "a knowing smile" during a performance. She went to great lengths to control access to her private recitals, which took place at her apartment, in small clubs, and each October at
4620-427: The possibility of overturning the status quo , making it a far more "radical spectacle" than kitsch . Musicologist Philip Brett has described camp as: a strategy which confronts un-queer ontology [states of being] and homophobia with humor and which by those same means may also signal the possibility of the overturn of that ontology—as when, on a famous night in 1969, the evening of the funeral of Judy Garland ,
4697-442: The power and relevance of camp: "Camp tends to come to the fore through moments of social and political instability, when our society is deeply polarized. The 1960s is one such moment, as were the 1980s, so, too, are the times in which we're living." Patrick Kelly 's designs have been described as camp and "Radical Cheek" for his ironic use of bold colours, antiquated or incongruous styles, and reclaimed racist symbols. He designed
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#17328953585684774-430: The prevailing (and largely ineffective) remedies of the pre-antibiotic era. By the time penicillin became generally available in the 1940s, Jenkins's disease had progressed to the tertiary stage. The only professional audio recordings of Jenkins consist of nine selections on five 78-rpm records (Melotone Recording Studio, New York City, 1941–1944), produced by Jenkins, at her expense, and sold to her friends at $ 2.50
4851-496: The shackles of musical notation." Despite – or perhaps because of – her technical incompetence, she became a prominent musical camp cult-figure in New York City during the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. Cole Porter , Gian Carlo Menotti , Lily Pons , Sir Thomas Beecham , and other celebrities were counted among her fans. Enrico Caruso reportedly "regarded her with affection and respect". The poet William Meredith wrote that
4928-488: The title Narcissa . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Narcissa&oldid=1243100664 " Categories : Disambiguation pages Disambiguation pages with given-name-holder lists English feminine given names Feminine given names Given names derived from plants or flowers Hidden categories: Short description
5005-409: The top", including women posing as female impersonators ( faux queens ) such as Carmen Miranda , while also retaining its meaning as "queer parody". In her study of drag , cultural anthropologist Esther Newton argued that camp has three major features: incongruity, theatricality, and humour. In his 1984, writer George Melly argued that the camp sensibility allowed almost anything to be seen as
5082-505: The way it makes a political point using outdated but reclaimed imagery. Lady Gaga , a contemporary exemplar of camp, uses music and dance to make social commentary on pop culture, as in the "Judas" music video. Her clothes, makeup, and accessories, created by high-end fashion designers, are integral to the narrative structure of her performances. Katy Perry has also been described as camp, with outlets like Vogue describing her as another "Queen of Camp". The British tradition of
5159-430: The word, as "ostentatious, exaggerated, affected, theatrical; effeminate or homosexual" behavior. In the UK's pre- liberation gay culture , the term was used as a general description of the aesthetic choices and behavior of working-class gay men . The term camp is still sometimes used in the UK to describe a gay man who is perceived as outwardly garish or eccentric, such as Matt Lucas ' character Daffyd Thomas in
5236-565: Was Camp: Notes on Fashion , co-chaired by Anna Wintour , Serena Williams , Lady Gaga , Harry Styles , and Alessandro Michele . The show featured tributes to queer and camp figures, including a bronze statue of the Vatican 's Belvedere Antinous , portraits of Louis XIV and Oscar Wilde , and celebrations of Black and Latinx ball culture and the Harlem Renaissance . Dapper Dan —whose luxurious fashion has been credited with camping up
5313-603: Was a camp spoof of the ABC Afterschool Special genre. Inspired by the work of George Kuchar and his brother Mike Kuchar , ASS Studios began making a series of short, no-budget camp films. Their feature film Satan, Hold My Hand (2013) features many elements recognized in camp pictures. Since 2000, the Eurovision Song Contest , an annually televised competition of song performers from different countries, has shown an increasing element of camp—since
5390-619: Was among 20 students in the "Fourth Room". Shortly after 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, December 20, 1881, Foster performed a vocal duet of “Two Merry Alpine Maids” as part of the annual Christmas service. Composed by Stephen Glover (1813–1870), this particular number was described by London’s Musical Herald as "a gay duet, with yodel and la la passages..." In a little under a year at the Bethlehem Female Seminary, Foster paid over $ 100 for music instruction and sheet music (equivalent to almost $ 3,000 in 2023 dollars). Foster’s interest in music
5467-414: Was exquisitely bad, so bad that it added up to quite a good evening of theater ... She would stray from the original music, and do insightful and instinctual things with her voice, but in a terribly distorted way. There was no end to the horribleness ... They say Cole Porter had to bang his cane into his foot in order not to laugh out loud when she sang. She was that bad." Nevertheless, Porter rarely missed
5544-438: Was followed, but tatty types so didn't bother to make overtures." American singer and actress Cher is one of the artists who received the title of "Queen of Camp" through her colourful on-stage fashion and live performances. She gained this status in the 1970s when she launched her variety shows in collaboration with the costume designer Bob Mackie and became a constant presence on American prime-time television. Madonna
5621-558: Was further evidenced by her purchase of hymnals. Additionally at that time, she purchased books in mythology, elementary algebra, rhetoric, and history. Foster did not graduate from the Bethlehem Female Seminary. After graduating from high school, her hopes of studying music in Europe were dashed when her father refused permission and funding. On July 11, 1883, ten days after the funeral of her sister and eight days before her 15th birthday, Foster married Dr. Francis Thornton Jenkins (1852–1917),
5698-616: Was little he could do to conceal her inaccurate intonation. She was consistently flat, sometimes considerably so. Her diction was similarly substandard, particularly with foreign-language lyrics. The difficult operatic arias that Jenkins chose to perform—all well beyond her technical ability and vocal range—served only to emphasize these deficiencies. "There's no way to even pedagogically discuss it," said vocal instructor Bill Schuman. "It's amazing that she's even attempting to sing that music." The opera impresario Ira Siff [ d ] , who dubbed her "the anti- Callas ", said, "Jenkins
5775-461: Was out of Jenkins's control for the first time, mockers, scoffers, and critics could no longer be kept at bay. The following morning's newspapers were filled with scathing, sarcastic reviews that devastated Jenkins, according to Bayfield. "[Mrs. Jenkins] has a great voice," wrote the New York Sun critic. "In fact, she can sing everything except notes ... Much of her singing was hopelessly lacking in
5852-801: Was pulling anyone's leg," said opera historian Albert Innaurato . "She was compos mentis , not a lunatic. She was a very proper, complex individual." As an anonymous obituary writer later put it, "Her ears, schooled in constant introversion, heard only the radiant tones which never issued forth to quell the mirth of her audiences." Her recitals featured arias from the standard operatic repertoire by Mozart , Verdi , and Johann Strauss ; lieder by Brahms ; Valverde 's Spanish waltz "Clavelitos" ("Little Carnations"); and songs composed by herself and McMoon. As in her tableaux, she complemented her performances with elaborate costumes of her own design, often involving wings, tinsel, and flowers. She would perform "Clavelitos" dressed as Carmen , complete with castanets and
5929-477: Was riding collided with another car, Jenkins let out a high-pitched scream. Upon arriving home, she went immediately to her piano and confirmed (at least to herself) that the note she had screamed was the fabled F above high C, a pitch she had never before been able to reach. Overjoyed, she refused to press charges against either involved party, and even sent the taxi driver a box of expensive cigars. McMoon said neither he "nor anyone else" ever heard her actually sing
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