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Bravo! by John Fortunato
AQUARIAN WEEKLY JULY 22 l998
DIAMANDA GALAS KNITTING FACTORY JUNE 26, 1998 John Fortunato, New York, NY
Letting out scale-bending caterwauls, ravaged howls, and hauntingly
soulful shrieks, operatic performance artist Diamanda Galas is the
vampiric archangel perched on the gates of hell. Able to reach
tormented dramatic heights far beyond those of mortal women, the
enigmatic, classically-trained Galas my just be the greatest singer
since Maria Callas. Raw, exasperated, and extreme, she allows all the
anguish, grief, misery, and despair of her plagued life
(she has been diagnosed with Hepatitis C virus and her brother,
unfortunately, died form AIDS) to surface in a most confident manner.
She's undeniably an iconoclastic avant-garde genius. Dressed in black
and laying the piano at this amazing Knitting Factory performance,
Galas shared stark moodscapes, poignant introspections, and plaintive
blues testimonials, captivating the "awedience" with mesmerizing,
unrestricted pieces in true theatrical fashion. She radically
deconstructed BB King's "The Thrill Is Gone" and the Supremes' "My
World Is Empty Without You," then scatted through drifting waves of
tickled ivories on "Supplica a Mia Madre." A provocative torch song
about "Dancing in the dark”, the terror-stricken, barrelhouse
blues-ransacked "Insane Asylum," and the stunning, death row
spinechiller "25 Minutes to Go" (which counts down the harrowing final
moments before an execution) kept the seated patrons enthralled. And
there's not a soul singer alive (except Aretha Franklin) who could
deliver the self-righteous "I'm Gonna Live the Life" with such utter
conviction. So completely enamored with her inspirational performance
were the sweat-drenched fans(most of the pieces featured this night
could be found on her recent MALEDICTION AND PRAYER album), they
brought Galas back for three separate one-song encores. |
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