At first it is a full-on assault to the ears. But stick around long enough, and Nancy Robinette?s compulsive squawking and shrieking sounds less and less abusive as her Florence Foster Jenkins twitters and tweets her way through an opera savant?s songbook. Eventually her earnest efforts seem less cringe-tastic and somehow ? somehow ? endearing, even if her severed “coloratura” never grows on you.

But we politely applaud the woman behind “Souvenir: A Fantasia on the Life of Florence Foster Jenkins,” Stephen Temperley?s tribute to the late, not-so-great singer and her devoted accompanist.