Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez, a soprano from South Philadelphia who sang in opera houses across Europe and gained even greater fame playing the title role in the stylish 1981 French thriller “Diva,” has died on Feb. 2 at his home in Lexington. , Ky. She was 75 years old.
His daughter and sole immediate survivor, Sheena M. Fernandez, said the cause was cancer.
Trained at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia and then at the Juilliard School in New York, Ms. Fernandez made her mark in the 1970s as Bess in the Houston Grand Opera’s international touring production of George’s “Porgy and Bess.” Gershwin. The tour took her to Europe, where she attracted the attention of Rolf Liebermann, the impresario known for reviving the Paris Opera. He offers him a two-year contract.
It was during a 1980 performance as Musetta in “La Bohème” alongside Plácido Domingo and Kiri Te Kanawa that she attracted the attention of French director Jean-Jacques Beineix, who was looking for a figure sufficiently radiant to serve as diva at heart. of his next film.
“Diva” was considered a high point of the movement known as cinema du look, a high-profile French film school often focused on the stylish, disaffected youth of France in the 1980s and 1990s. Film with all the colors saturated and the sparkle of a music video from the 1980s, it was an arthouse success that became cult for those in the know.
The story revolves around a young opera lover named Jules (played by Frédéric Andréi) who becomes so infatuated with an American opera star named Cynthia Hawkins that he surreptitiously records one of her performances – despite his well-known decree prohibiting any of his works from being recorded. , because that would capture only part of the power and immediacy of his greatness.
This greatness is on full display in Ms. Fernandez’s ohanging scene, as she takes the stage in a haunting old theater, wearing a shimmering white dress and metallic eyeshadow. She continues to hypnotize the house – and Jules – with a soaring rendition of the aria “Ebben?” Ne andrò lontana” (“Well, then? I’ll go far”) from the opera “La Wally” by Alfredo Catalani.
The recording of Jules’ performance becomes a device that leads him into a whirlwind of underworld hitmen, Taiwanese music pirates, and roaring engines in a chase scene focused on a moped which joins the Paris metro.
Not all critics were charmed. Vincent Canby of The New York Times called the film an “anthology of affectations.” But The New Yorker’s Pauline Kael praised it as a “glittering toy of a film” that “rushes along with pell-mell grace.” While praising Ms. Fernandez as “incredibly beautiful,” Ms. Kael even admitted that her “French American accent and amateurism as an actress are attractive.”
“Diva,” in fact, would be Ms. Fernandez’s only film role. In interviews, she has stated that she never wanted to be an actress, believing that the static environment of a film set was no substitute for the electricity of the stage.
Yet in a 1987 interview with radio host Bruce Duffie, she expressed satisfaction that her role had brought opera to “a higher level.” completely different audience who are probably not used to going to the opera or hearing classical music.
“More and more, I notice that by doing recitals and concerts, the audience is younger and younger, and it’s because they have seen the film,” she adds. “Not only do they come to see me, but they say they’re going to see other people, and that’s great.”
Wilhelmenia Wiggins was born on January 5, 1949, in Philadelphia, the eldest of two children of Ernest and Vinelee (Clayton) Wiggins.
Her vocal talents were evident at the age of 5, when she sang with her family’s Baptist church choir. As a teenager, her celestial soprano took flight in the choir at William Penn High School for Girls. She honed her voice through formal training with soprano Tillie Barmach at the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia.
After graduating from the Academy of Vocal Arts, also in Philadelphia, in 1969, she won a scholarship to Juilliard in New York. She married Ormond Fernandez, a mail carrier, in 1971 and eventually left Juilliard in 1973 without a degree to raise her infant daughter.
Ms. Fernandez later recalled the challenges she faced as a black performer trying to forge a career in the Eurocentric world of opera.
“For a long time I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to sing because I was worried about the color affecting my chances,The Washington Post quoted him in a 1982 profile. “I wish I could sing behind a screen and be judged on my voice.”
During auditions, she said, she often noticed “the little face drooping” when she arrived, which she interpreted to mean, “We’d like you to play the part, but you’re black.” Then, she added, “they were talking among themselves while you sang.”
Although “Diva” was Ms. Fernandez’s final appearance on celluloid, it was only a prelude to a long career that included her New York City Opera debut in 1982, once again as Musetta in “Diva.” La Bohème”, as well as performances throughout Europe.
In addition to making Musetta her own, she also made the title role in Verdi’s “Aida,” an Ethiopian princess held captive in ancient Egypt, a signature. At one point, she even played the role in the middle of Luxor temples in Egypt itself.
In 1992, Ms. Fernandez won the Laurence Olivier Award, the British equivalent of a Tony, for best actress in a musical for her portrayal of Carmen in “Carmen Jones.”
She got married Andrew W. Smithbaritone at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, in 2001 and moved to Lexington, where he directed the voice program at Kentucky State University. He died in 2018. His first marriage ended in divorce in the early 1980s.
Motivated to complete her education, Ms. Fernandez earned a bachelor’s degree in voice from the University of Kentucky in 2007, then earned a master’s degree in education from Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky. The master’s program prepared her for her eventual work as an education specialist at an elementary school in Lexington.
Although she carved out a lasting place in cinema history with her role as a big-screen diva, Ms. Fernandez never attempted to inhabit such a persona offstage, even when her cinematic fame was fresh.
She told the Washington Post in 1982 that the film “Diva” “opened up a different world for me.”
“People recognize me in the street,” she says, “and I’ve just finished a recording session. It seems like I’m getting a little more attention.
Despite this, on this hot summer day when she was interviewed in her South Philadelphia home, with children outside splashing in water gushing from open fire hydrants, she said: “It’s my identity. I don’t want to pretend to be something I’m not.
