Philadelphia-born soprano Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez has died. Fernandez attained international recognition as the obsessive center of the French post-New Wave thriller, “Diva.” In the film, her character captivates an opera-loving courier, whose penchant for bootleg recording places him in the crosshairs of Parisian hitmen.

If you’ve ever seen “Diva,” I’m sure your memory needs no refreshing. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a fatally cool, colorful, “Cinéma du Look” chase movie, featuring Ray-Ban wearing gangsters, impossibly chic lofts in which tenants dreamily roller skate around bathtubs, and Fernandez, adorned like a Greek goddess, singing the big aria from Alfredo Catalani’s “La Wally.” It also happened to be essential ‘80s arthouse cinema.

Worlds away from hipster-punk Paris, Fernandez grew up in Philadelphia at 23rd and Dickinson Streets. Her promise was detected early, at the age of 5, and she was invited to join the choir of Tasker Street Baptist Church. Later, she enrolled at the Settlement School, where she studied voice with Tillie Barmach. From there, she entered the Academy of Vocal Arts. This was followed by a scholarship to the Juilliard School.

Her operatic debut was in “Porgy and Bess” at Houston Grand Opera, a production that toured both the U.S. and Europe. She first appeared in Paris, opposite Placido Domingo and Kiri Te Kanawa, as Musetta in “La bohème.”

She passed up “Luisa Miller” at the Met for “Carmen Jones” on London’s West End. Her performance was recognized with an Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1992. Surely another career highlight was a production of “Aida” staged at the pyramids.

It was during her Paris run that Fernandez was approached with the offer to appear in “Diva.”

In the film, she breathed new life into the aria “Ebben? Ne andrò lontana” from Catalani’s “La Wally.” Previously a favorite of Renata Tebaldi, it became Fernandez’s signature for 25 years. The opera itself is seldom performed, probably in large part because it concludes with an avalanche!

I remember reading an effusive review of “Diva” in David Denby’s column in New York Magazine as a teenager and wanting to see it so very badly. I figured I never would, since (1) it was French, (2) it was 1981, and (3) I was 15 and living in the Lehigh Valley. There was no internet at the time and home video availability in those days, I’m sure you’ll recall, was spotty at best. Even if I could find it, the purchase of a foreign film would have been prohibitively expensive.

O me of little faith! I hadn’t banked on the Allentown art house, the 19th Street Theatre (now the Civic Theatre of Allentown). 19th Street was where I could see films like “El Norte,” “Fitzcarraldo,” and “My Brilliant Career,” when, living in a small town, one couldn’t expect to see them anywhere else – unless they happened to turn up later at one of the local universities. It was at 19th Street that I first saw “Diva.”

Then, what do you know, in the mid-‘80s, it became a favorite on WHYY, Philadelphia’s public television station, so I was able to watch it again and again. In the interim, I saw it on the big screen a second time in college and then at Philadelphia’s late lamented Theater of the Living Arts (TLA) on South Street, back in the days when it was still the city’s best movie house. Sadly, it’s now just another concert venue. I used to hit that theater three times a week. $2.50 admission with student I.D.

On weekdays, the double features were changed every other day, with the biggest draws, the cult favorites and crowd-pleasing classics, saved for the three-day weekend.

“Diva” was one fun, sharp-looking movie – a foreign film for people who think they don’t like foreign films. Kind of to the early ‘80s what “Run, Lola, Run” was to the late 90s. I should have known something was up in when I was able to locate the soundtrack at the local mall!

Fernandez held additional degrees in voice and education from the University of Kentucky and Georgetown College. She made Lexington her home, at first shepherding young singers, but becoming disillusioned with their lack of application; so she turned to elementary special education instead, working with children with autism and A.D.D., a pursuit she found deeply rewarding. She directed a children’s choir at Lexington’s Main Street Baptist Church, where she also continued to sing.

Fernandez died in Lexington on February 2 at the age of 75. By coincidence, the director of “Diva,” Jean-Jacques Beineix, was also 75 at the time of his death in 2022.

R.I.P.

Fernandez sings “La Wally”

The film’s trailer

In conversation with Bruce Duffie

https://www.bruceduffie.com/fernandez.html