LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez Smith, a renowned soprano known for her performance in the 1981 French cult-classic film “Diva” and who sang through the U.S. and Europe during her operatic career, has died at age 75.
Funeral services were held Friday for Fernandez Smith at a church in Lexington, Kentucky, where she had moved after residing for years in her native Philadelphia.
She died of cancer Feb. 2 at her home in Lexington, daughter Sheena Maria Fernandez told The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Billed as Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez, she opened the movie directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix wearing a white gown and singing in an aging theater the aria “Ebben?
“Wilhelmenia was always a very quiet person and did not crave the limelight,” Everett McCorvey, director of the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre, told the Lexington newspaper.
Persons:
— Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez Smith, ”, Fernandez Smith, Sheena Maria Fernandez, Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez, Jean, Jacques Beineix, La Wally, “, Andrew Smith, “ Wilhelmenia, ” Everett McCorvey, Fernandez Smith’s, Kerr
Organizations:
U.S, Philadelphia Inquirer, Academy of Vocal Arts, Juilliard School, Filmmakers, Inquirer, Kentucky State University, Lexington Herald, Baptist Church, University of Kentucky Opera Theatre, Lexington
Locations:
LEXINGTON, Ky, Europe, Lexington , Kentucky, Philadelphia, Lexington, New York, Paris, Kentucky