THE MODENA DAILY NEWS
May 18, 2007
The Sabbath of Diamanda Galás: The Magic that Contaminates the Audience
by Generoso Venerrusio
A stool, a grand piano, an angel with a Luciferian visage. You are seized by a morbid sacredness, by a liturgy, by a hidden and indecipherable sense of fullness. It is the Sabbath of Diamanda Galás, the witch's transgression given by one of the world's most celebrated artists.
Smoke spirals from the stage and a sweet fragrance is driven into the audience; the lights are attenuated and then flicker until completely dark. It's the agreed signal, the rite that is performed: Diamanda can enter the stage and start to sing her mass.
Few sounds, some whispered words and the skin gets cold, the body starts to vibrate. A porous, hot, and sensual voice bursts from an unknown recess. Just the time to charm. After it changes consistency and reshapes, it becomes acid, scathing, and searing so that the audience cannot repose.
Wednesday's night concert has been a concatenation of old and new interpretations— (Amours perdues, You Don't Know What Love Is, Autumn Leaves, O Death, Supplica a mia madre, Si la muerte)—a boiling magma of thought and reality.(Heaven Have Mercy, Eight Men and Four Women, You're My Thrill)—a perturbing conflagration of tongues.
The mystical breath of this provocative priestess of the XXI century has trapped, absorbed and imprisoned the audience's attention for 90 minutes. The admirable extension of her voice, the acrobatic contortions of sounds and words, never complacent but always moving, have given moments of panic, as if from blasphemy. Spirit and matter are one body.
Sacred and holy applause: the immaculate art of Diamanda Galás, like an object that deserves veneration, has found its ideal temple in The Teatro Comunale di Modena.
An ideal temple that was reserved for excellence.