AN ART ON SCREEN FILM
A SPECIAL SCREENING AND TRIBUTE TO WILHELMENIA FERNANDEZ
Special Guests: Everett McCorvey, the Kentucky State Choir, and more!
MON, MAR 25 @ 7:15PM | $6.50
Join us for the first film event in our brand new series, ART ON SCREEN. We're proud to partner with Everett McCorvey, the Kentucky State Choir, and other guests to salute the life and musical career of the late Wilhelmenia Fernandez with this special screening of Diva.
"Here is a director taking audacious chances, doing wild and unpredictable things with his camera and actors, just to celebrate moviemaking." —Roger Ebert
A young mail carrier, Jules (Frederic Andrei), becomes entranced with the voice of American diva Cynthia Hawkins (Wilhelmenia Fernandez). She doesn't believe in being recorded, but Jules secretly records her singing on a tape. His recording gets mixed up with another tape that incriminates a police chief, who is working with the mob. Jules quickly becomes the target of mob gangsters, and he must find a way to get himself out of the situation alive.
ABOUT WILHELMENIA FERNANDEZ
Born in 1949, Wilhelmenia Fernandez began her academic training at the Philadelphia Academy of Vocal Arts and then studied as a scholarship student at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. She made her operatic debut as Bess in Porgy and Bess for Houston Grand Opera, a production that toured the U.S. and Europe. She made her Paris début in 1979 as Musetta in La Bohème alongside Plácido Domingo and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa.
French film director Jean-Jacques Beineix saw her Musetta performance and cast her as the title character of his 1981 film Diva, which proved an art-house success and became a cult favorite. In the film Fernandez performed the aria "Ebben? Ne andrò lontana" from Alfredo Catalani's opera La Wally. Its New York run lasted more than two years and it was the official French nominee in the Academy Awards.
Fernandez performed the role of Musetta at the New York City Opera in 1982. She debuted at the Detroit Opera that year and returned to sing Marguerite in Faust the next year.
Thereafter, she sang in operas and recitals in cities all over the world. Her more notable roles were the title roles in Carmen, Carmen Jones and Aïda. She also made recordings of George Gershwin songs and of Negro spirituals.
For her work in Carmen Jones on the London stage she received the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1992 as Best Actress in a Musical.
Fernandez earned degrees from the University of Kentucky and Georgetown College in voice and education.
ABOUT ART ON SCREEN
Hundreds of films explore the arts and the lives of artists. ART ON SCREEN seeks to broaden an interest in the arts through the creative pairing of films about art and artists with entertaining discussions by notable speakers from the world of art and art history.
We think of ART ON SCREEN as ‘TED Talks’ goes to the movies. Our goal is to broaden interest in the arts in an entertaining manner meant to appeal not only to art aficionados but also to those who find the art world a bit intimidating or mystifying.
ART ON SCREEN is made possible through the generous support of Jackie Hamilton.