Aria from Diva - Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez

Fernandez sings the aria "Ebben? Ne andrò lontana", from Act I of Catalani's opera "La Wally." The piece is a haunting reverie on the theme of traveling alone and far from home. Catalani died in 1893 of consumption at the age of 39, only a year after the triumphant premiere of "La Wally" at La Scala.

This performance plays a prominent role in the 1981 French romantic thriller, "Diva" - and is an excerpt from the DVD. Roger Ebert, film critic for the Chicago Sun Times, rates the movie 5 stars out of 5.

This was one of the most frequently "favorited" videos on BestArts.

The opera, based on a German novel, has a libretto by the young Luigi Illica, who went on to collaborate on the texts for "La Boheme," "Tosca" and "Madama Butterfly." It tells of a wild, headstrong Swiss mountain girl who loves one local huntsman and is loved by another. Eventually she wins her true love, the pair embraces high in the Alps, an avalanche entombs the hero and she leaps after him to her snowy death.

The libretto for the opera is available (in Italian) at http://www.karadar.com/Librettos/catalani_wally.html

A plot summary of the opera is available in English at http://www.spikesworld.spike-jamie.com/opera/LA%20WALLY.pdf

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Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Aria
• La
• Wally
• Wilhelmenia
• Wiggins
• Fernandez
• Diva
• Film
• Opera
• Black
• BestArts
• theBestArts

[kdavid]

Diva is one if the best movies ever !

[sslohier]

i love this film- it is such a classic, and 80s Europe seems like so much fun!

Cinema new look!

[silvanusslaughter]

Terrific through and through!

[ericbelify]

as one-hit wonders go, Catalani hit the bullseye with this one.  This is an absolutely magical peice of music.

[sonofTelstar]

An intoxicating opening to a film over-flowing with beautiful moments and scenes and words...my spine shivers every time that I see and hear this....how could you not be drawn into this beautifully sad reverie?...modern French cinema at its zenith..

[TheBlizzardcat]

I really liked this rendition.

Has anyone heard Maria Callas sing this piece? Do listen please.

Thanks for posting. 😃

[19davo66]

Qui a vole la robe de la Diva?

[19davo66]

@kdavid Exactly how I feel. Amazing story, film, mood - it never gets better than this!

[19davo66]

Amazing. she, the music, the film and the memories. x

[Bogart1899]

@bibicool65 J'ai ecoute les versions de Callas et Tebaldi sur YouTube.. Des 3 versions, la version de Callas est de loin la meilleure. Je croix qu'elle chante avec plus d'emotion, ses phrases sont plus nuancees, l'interpretation est tres subtile. En somme, impossible de faire mieux.

[zo219]

Love the technology! (Truly a Best Movie.)

[walker0762]

wow!!!!