Opera singer Wilhelmenia Fernandez who starred in French thriller Diva, has died aged 75

Opera singer Wilhelmenia Fernandez has passed away of cancer at the age of 75. Wilhelmenia was best known for her performance in the 1981 French thriller and cult classic Diva. The crux of the movie Diva was that a postman Jules played by Frédéric Andréi was obsessed with an opera singer, Cynthia, who was portrayed by Wilhelmenia Fernandez.

Wilhelmenia Fernandez attended both the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia and the Juilliard School in New York City and first came to attention when she took on the role of Bess in the Houston Grand Opera’s international travelling production of George Gershwin’s ‘Porgy and Bess’ in the 1970s.

The New York Times reported that “The tour took her to Europe, where she caught the eye of Rolf Liebermann, the impresario known for reviving the Paris Opera. He offered her a two-year contract. It was in a 1980 performance as Musetta in “La Bohème” alongside Plácido Domingo and Kiri Te Kanawa that she caught the attention of the French director Jean-Jacques Beineix, who was looking for a figure radiant enough to serve as the diva at the heart of his forthcoming film.”

In an interview with Bruce Duffie, Wilhelmenia discussed why she agreed to take part in the movie Diva. “ I didn’t know it then, but I thought that I would be able to use it as a vehicle of introducing classical music and opera, even some drama — not that I’m acting much in the film — to a completely different audience who are probably not accustomed to going to the opera or hearing classical music.  More and more, I find in doing recitals and concerts that the audience is younger and younger, and it’s because they have seen the film.  They come backstage afterward and they say they’re only here because of me.” 

Wilhelmenia, who was born in 1949, was brought up by her mother, Vinelee Wiggins, a garment worker and organist at Tasker Street Baptist Church, in South Philadelphia. Her parents divorced and her father was a long-distance lorry driver. 

After finishing high school, she worked for two years as an insurance company secretary before leaving to study music full-time. After singing Charles Gounod’s Oh Divine Redeemer, in her audition, she was given a place at the Juilliard School in New York. In 1972, she married postal worker Ormon Fernandez, the couple had a daughter together, Sheena. 

The Times reported that “Her British opera debut in 1985 was as Leonora in Verdi’s Il trovatore for Opera North at the Grand Theatre, Leeds, with Opera magazine declaring: “There is a glow of opulence in her coloratura that would turn the dullest ear.” A year later she returned to Yorkshire in Verdi’s Aida, where “the sheer musicianship of [her] singing of the title role was as striking as ever, as was the quiet dignity of her acting.”

Later on in her life, Wilhelmina worked with children with special educational needs, her second husband Andrew Smith, who was a baritone, predeceased her in 2018.