back	defixiones reviews
	GALAS GALA I-D Magazine London December 1999 arts edited by Stuart Shave Diamanda Galas has diva-like status amongst her legions of fans. Her voice has a four octave range, she plays piano at a virtuosos level and has packed out audiences over the past ten years in cathedrals, alternative art spaces and venues all over the world . That her operatic oeuvre tends to focus on madness, torture and AIDS--that she is an ex-prostitute and ex-intravenous drug user and denounced God as " a callous bitch" is by not means irrelevant to her work. Born and raised in San Diego, Galas has established herself as a leading influence on the avant garde operatic scene. Her voice literally pulls the body apart, her lyrics are laced with violence and rage. It's well known that when she rehearses in her Greenwich Village apartment the police have turned up more than once, not to arrest her for noise pollution but because neighbors thought that someone was being murdered. Officially condemned by the Roman Catholic Church, Galas caused controversy when she performed her PLAGUE MASS stripped to the waist and covered in blood. Her records have been taken to priest for exorcism, her fingers are tattooed with the inscription "We Are All HIV+." (The first singer to compose a requiem for people with AIDS, her brother, Philip-Dimitri Galas, died in her arms from an AIDS-related illness in l986). Galas has a body of work which makes PJ Harvey seem like easy listening. People have been known to flee from her concerts, one man almost getting run over as he charged screaming from the theatre into a busy main road. Needless to say, the romance of requiems of tragedy and death have earned her a dedicated goth following, but her work is also hugely popular in gay culture. She returns to London this December for a one-off performance at The Barbican with her latest work, DEFIXIONES, WILL & TESTAMENT. Exploring a (slight) new tenderness within her work, this show should provoke a staggering range of emotions, taking her audience on a cathartic inner journey that will alternate from the passionate to the downright disturbing. Galas is a voice terrorist and, gothy associations aside, she is important in the respect that the voice is treated as an art form that transcends singing as we know it. Taking texts from exiled poets including Armenian Siamanto, Henri Michaux and Adonis, the performance of DEFIXIONES will range in musical style from Greek Rembetika to American Blues and the songs of the deep south. Dedicated to the forgotten people of the Armenain and Anatolian Greek genocides of 1915 and 1922, the work of Galas will always be seen as vengeful testament to an sort of particular pain, that of AIDS and HIV included. She might not be everyone's cup of tea but the again she doesn't particularly care if she isn't. This performance could rip you in two. Be very afraid.... (Diamanda Galas is on December 9 at the Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2.)

back

defixiones reviews

GALAS GALA

I-D Magazine London December 1999
arts edited by Stuart Shave

Diamanda Galas has diva-like status amongst her legions of fans. Her voice has a four octave range, she plays piano at a virtuosos level and has packed out audiences over the past ten years in cathedrals, alternative art spaces and venues all over the world . That her operatic oeuvre tends to focus on madness, torture and AIDS--that she is an ex-prostitute and ex-intravenous drug user and denounced God as " a callous bitch" is by not means irrelevant to her work. Born and raised in San Diego, Galas has established herself as a leading influence on the avant garde operatic scene. Her voice literally pulls the body apart, her lyrics are laced with violence and rage. It's well known that when she rehearses in her Greenwich Village apartment the police have turned up more than once, not to arrest her for noise pollution but because neighbors thought that someone was being murdered. Officially condemned by the Roman Catholic Church, Galas caused controversy when she performed her PLAGUE MASS stripped to the waist and covered in blood. Her records have been taken to priest for exorcism, her fingers are tattooed with the inscription "We Are All HIV+." (The first singer to compose a requiem for people with AIDS, her brother, Philip-Dimitri Galas, died in her arms from an AIDS-related illness in l986). Galas has a body of work which makes PJ Harvey seem like easy listening. People have been known to flee from her concerts, one man almost getting run over as he charged screaming from the theatre into a busy main road. Needless to say, the romance of requiems of tragedy and death have earned her a dedicated goth following, but her work is also hugely popular in gay culture. She returns to London this December for a one-off performance at The Barbican with her latest work, DEFIXIONES, WILL & TESTAMENT. Exploring a (slight) new tenderness within her work, this show should provoke a staggering range of emotions, taking her audience on a cathartic inner journey that will alternate from the passionate to the downright disturbing. Galas is a voice terrorist and, gothy associations aside, she is important in the respect that the voice is treated as an art form that transcends singing as we know it. Taking texts from exiled poets including Armenian Siamanto, Henri Michaux and Adonis, the performance of DEFIXIONES will range in musical style from Greek Rembetika to American Blues and the songs of the deep south. Dedicated to the forgotten people of the Armenain and Anatolian Greek genocides of 1915 and 1922, the work of Galas will always be seen as vengeful testament to an sort of particular pain, that of AIDS and HIV included. She might not be everyone's cup of tea but the again she doesn't particularly care if she isn't. This performance could rip you in two. Be very afraid....

(Diamanda Galas is on December 9 at the Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2.)