Wilhelmenia Fernandez

Wilhelmenia Fernandez (also billed as Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez; January 5, 1949 – February 2, 2024) was an American soprano born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Ernest and Vinelee (Clayton) Wiggins. Her early musical life was rooted in church and school choral singing, beginning with the choir at Main Street Baptist Church and continuing through her years at William Penn High School for Girls. She received formal vocal training from soprano Tillie Barmach at Philadelphia's Settlement Music School before pursuing academic study at the Philadelphia Academy of Vocal Arts and, on scholarship, at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. She later earned degrees in voice and education from the University of Kentucky and Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky.

Fernandez made her operatic debut in the role of Bess in Porgy and Bess with the Houston Grand Opera, a production that toured both the United States and Europe. That same credit brought her to Broadway in 1976. Her Paris debut followed in 1979, when she sang Musetta in La bohème alongside Plácido Domingo and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa.

French director Jean-Jacques Beineix attended her Musetta performance and subsequently cast her as the title character in his 1981 film Diva. In the film, Fernandez performed the aria "Ebben? Ne andrò lontana" from Alfredo Catalani's opera La Wally. Diva became an art-house success and a cult favorite, running more than two years in New York, and was selected as France's official submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the 54th Academy Awards, though it did not receive a nomination. Her 1981 recording of the aria from the film was later included on the soundtrack of Ridley Scott's 1987 film Someone to Watch Over Me.

In 1982, Fernandez sang Musetta at the New York City Opera and made her debut at the Detroit Opera, returning the following year to perform Marguerite in Faust. Her career subsequently took her to opera houses and recital stages around the world. Among her most prominent roles were the title parts in Carmen, Carmen Jones, and Aïda, the last of which she performed in Luxor and at the Egyptian pyramids. She also made recordings of George Gershwin songs and Negro spirituals, and appeared in a number of television performances.

For her performance in Carmen Jones in London's West End, Fernandez received the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1992. She died on February 2, 2024, in Lexington, Kentucky, where she had lived for a number of years, at the age of 75, of cancer.