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Wilhelmenia Fernandez (1949 - 2024)

Wilhelmenia Fernandez in Diva (1981) dir. Jean-Jacques Beineix

R.I.P. Wilhelmenia Fernandez

Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez, "Ebben? Ne andrò lontana" (from Diva)

The woman whose beautiful performance of this aria introduced many filmgoers to, variously, the opera La Wally, the work of the composer Catalani, or opera itself, has died, age 75.

aav.

Ebben! Ne andrò lontana Ah well then! I shall go far away Come va l'eco pia campana, Like the echo of the pious church-bell goes away, Là fra la neve bianca; There somewhere in the white snow; Là fra le nubi d'ôr There amongst the clouds of gold

Nothing. Nothing ever will ever top the dynamic duo of Marc St. James and Wilhelmenia Slater no duo will ever be more iconic

“What's your name, Mr. Postman?“

Diva, 1981.

Dir. Jean-Jacques Beineix | Writ. Jean-Jacques Beineix &  Jean Van Hamme | DOP Philippe Rousselot

Currently Playing

DIVA Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Vladimir Cosma Featuring Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez

With Gérard Parmentier, Hubert Varron, Raymond Alessandrini London Symphony Orchestra

Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez, a South Philadelphia-bred soprano who sang in the opera houses of Europe and gained even more fame for playing the title role in the style-soaked 1981 French thriller “Diva”

Many great divas of the last thirty to forty years have been African Americans: Grace Bumbry, Martina Arroyo, Shirley Verrett, Leona Mitchell, Betty Allen, Mattiwilda Dobbs, Kathleen Battle, Leontyne Price, Jessye Norman. And yet, until recently, opera was a white enterprise. Most opera houses forbade women or men of color from singing or attending. Few blacks attended the Metropolitan Opera, even in the absence of strict segregation policies, and no blacks sang leading roles there until Marian Anderson made her postprime debut in 1955 as Ulrica the gypsy witch in Un Ballo in Maschera. Rosalyn M. Story's recent study, And So I Sing: African-American Divas of Opera and Concert, details a long history of African-American women achieving fame either through recital work or through operatic performances in all-black companies.

In Jean-Jacques Beineix's film Diva, the diva, Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez, an American woman of color, subverts the traditional image of the white diva and reminds us that divas, though usually white, have been linked to racial otherness, darkness, exoticism, and "blood". Long before the recent flourishing of the African-American diva, opera culture used images of darkness to demonize the diva. Color is one of the primary metaphors for the qualities of vocal tone. Singers are taught to avoid the "white" sound and to cover the tones, to make them darker. Roles like Carmen rely on the notion of the diva's "Latin blood". When divas have been made up to appear Asian or African for such roles as Aida, Selika, Cio-Cio-San, and Iris, they were expressing opera culture's insistence on the dark nature of the diva, as well as underscoring, in a problematic masquerade, the white diva's separation from the women of color she portrays.

The voice of the black operatic or concert diva was imagined to emanate directly from her ethnicity: commentators referred to Marian Anderson's "Negroid sound." And listeners have used metaphors of darkness and of racial essence to describe the appeal of certain female operatic voices even when the singer was white. Maria Malibran and Pauline Viardot were frequently described as having non-European features; one friend of Malibran speculated on the diva's "negro blood." A journalist, describing Adelina Patti as a child, notices her "little brown throat," her "Dark arms" clinging to her girl playmates' "white little necks"; because of her darkness, she is a "born exponent of the Spanish type." Italian origin was itself considered a sign of darkness: Margherita de L'Epine was called the "tawny Tuscan."

The diva brings her vocal treasure abroad, on tour to the colonies; and she finds there, among the colonized, a reflection of her abjected organ. Galli-Curci's biographer, narrating the diva's tour of Asia and Africa, alternates descriptions of her "native" audiences and accounts of her larynx's increasing vulnerability to medical specialists and to disease, as if the diva's voice, sent to tame and tranquilize the colonized, were itself the empire's possession, doomed to mysterious maladies and uncontrolled passions. Galli-Curci was like a missionary bent on conquering darkness; but her voice, because it was female, hidden, and inscrutable, was already aligned, in the imagery of empire, with the colonized.

- The Queen’s Throat: Opera, Homosexuality, and the Mystery of Desire, Wayne Koestenbaum.

DIVA - 1981 - after the novel by Delacorta

Director: Jean-Jacques Beineix

Music: Vladimir Cosma

Cast:

Cynthia Hawkins as Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez Frédéric Andréi as Jules Richard Bohringer as Serge Gorodish Thuy An Luu as Alba Jacques Fabbri as Commissaire Jean Saporta Chantal Deruaz as Nadia Kalanski Anny Romand as Paula Roland Bertin as Simon Weinstadt Gérard Darmon as L' Antillais Dominique Pinon as Le curé Patrick Floersheim as Zatopek

Two tapes, two Parisian mob killers, one corrupt policeman, an opera fan, a teenage thief, a cool philosopher . . .  and a chase scene to rival that in the French Connection. And can you guess what Le curé (Dominique Pinon) listens to all the time?

Delacorta novels in the series

The National Association of Negro Musicians, Inc. is one of the oldest organizations in the US dedicated to the preservation, encouragement, and advocacy of all genres of the music of African-Americans. NANM had its beginning on May 3, 1919, in DC at a temporary initial conference of “Negro” musicians under the leadership of Henry Grant and Nora Holt. Within Members lend their support and influence—educators and professional musicians share their musical knowledge, and amateurs and enthusiasts grow in their musical enjoyment.

NANM has provided encouragement and support to thousands of African American musicians, many of whom have become respected figures and have contributed to American culture and music history. The organization has awarded scholarships to scores of talented young musicians throughout the country, including Marian Anderson, William L. Dawson, Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, Warren George Wilson, James Frazier, Julia Perry, Grace Bumbry, Leon Bates, Joseph Joubert, and Awadagin Pratt.

Many international personalities have been presented in performance, including Lena Horne, Todd Duncan, John W. Work, R. Nathaniel Dett, Marian Anderson, Edward Boatner, Camille Nickerson, Clarence Cameron White, Margaret Bonds, Florence B. Price, Etta Moten, Betty Allen, Natalie Hinderas, Adele Addison, Kermit Moore, Simon Estes, George Shirley, Robert McFerrin, Shirley Verrett, Jessye Norman, Carl Rossini Diton, Sanford Allen, Derek Lee Ragin, the Uptown String Quartet, Esther Hinds, Ruby Hinds, Wilhelmenia Fernandez, the Hinds Sisters, William Warfield, Benjamin Matthews, the Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers, Harolyn Blackwell, Billy Taylor, Delphin and Romain, Greg Hopkins, Martina Arroyo, and Nina Simone.

Clinicians and lecturers of note include Carl Diton, Warner Lawson, Frederick Hall, Kemper Harreld, Wendell Whalum, Eileen Southern, Doris Evans McGinty, Alain Locke, Grace Bumbry, Sylvia Olden Lee, James Cleveland, Raoul Abdul, Matthew Kennedy, Geneva Handy Southall, Sowah Mensah, Willis Patterson, Roland Carter, Brazeal Dennard, Robert Harris, and Shirley Verrett. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

For my 4th Blog about The French New Wave, I watched the 1981 French film Divia. Directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix this thriller is an adaptation of the book of the same name by author Daniel Odier. When a young postal worker named Jules becomes infatuated with Americana opera singer Cynthia Hawkins, he makes it his mission to be the first to record her voice. When he attends one of her concerts, he brings a tape recorder with him and secretly records her singing an aria. Jules is always on the run from many people including a pair of police officers for stealing. After he tries to escape, he is shot but survives. When Goroodish gets a hold of the recording he uses it for his own good. When Jules returners to try and give Cynthia her recording back he is greeted by L’Antillais and Le Cure who are there to kidnaped him. After returning to his apartment with intention of killing him they are gartered by a police officer who killed Le Curue and wounds L’Antillias. After Saporta appears and kills. The film ends with Jules giving Cynthia her recording back and her questioning er singing. By the early 80’s the New French Wave was more established. While this movie is heavy on the violence it is the perfect definition of a New French Wave classic. The violent nature of the film only adds to its appeal. You can see how much the genre has evolved from its early days of black and white romance films to film noir filled with color.  

Wilhelmenia Fernandez as Cynthia Hawkins

Wilhelmenia Slater was seriously written for me. Literally everything about her was tailor-made for me to fall in love with her