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	LIZARD QUEEN SEEKING REVENGE FOR THE DEAD MUSIC REVIEW THE AGE CONCERT of La Serpenta Canta Melbourne Concert Hall Jan 23 2001 by Fiona Scott-Norman It was like a portal opening to another dimension on Saturday night, when Diamanda Galas performed her cycle of blues 'songs' LA SERPENTA CANTA (The Serpent Sings). Galas is so powerful, so dread, and otherwordly, that it is hard to reconcile her as merely human. Of Greek heritage, raised in San Diego, but a denizen of New York and Berlin, she is an operatically trained "gothic" performance artist, singer and activist with a four-octave voice, dazzling innovative keyboard skills, a degree in immunology and a cult following. In a l988 interview she said ," My voice was given to me as an instrument for inspiration for my friends, and a tool of torture and destruction to my enemies. An instrument of truth." And having seen her, I'd concur, she could kill with that voice if she wanted to. She plays the piano like driving rain slapping on concrete, and she sings like a demon going to war, a valkyrie scatting, a lizard queen seeking revenge for the dead. Her voice, as strong as steel and as versatile as a German gymnast, sounds as if it howled through a sepulchre on the way to your ears. Galas, who looks like a ravaged Morticia, did not speak a single word throughout her performance, and, a portrait of self-possession, sat almost entirely still. Her songs included a desolate cover of the Supremes' hit My World is Empty Without You, Insane Asylum by Willie Dixon, and a chilling version of Johnny Cash's countdown on death row, 25 Minutes To Go {by Shel Silverstein} . She also sang Screaming Jay Hawkins' I Put A Spell On You, The Dark End of the Street, and Supplica A Mi Madre, setting Pier Paulo Pasolini's words to her own music. Galas' performance is not gloomy or enervating, but is an exultant lamentation and passionate acknowledgement of human pain and sorrow. She has long been associated with issues of retribution, contamination and moral awakening; her landmark recording, the Masque if the Red Death triptych, recorded from 1986-88, inspired in part by the death of her brother, Philip Dmitri Galas, set religious texts to music and was a requiem to those dead and dying from AIDS. She performed it stripped to the waist and covered in blood in St.Patricks cathedral in New York. Galas has "We Are All HIV+" tattoed on one hand, and her 1992 recording Vena Cava is a tribute to the destruction of the mind through AIDS. Her other current show, Defixiones, Will and Testament (in Perth on January 27), is dedicated to those who died in the Armenian and Anatolian Greek genocides of 1915 and 1922. Galas is profound, rigorous, vocally unlimited, terrifying and utterly compelling. To see her live was a privilege, to hear her is to have your soul scoured clean.

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la serpenta canta reviews

LIZARD QUEEN SEEKING REVENGE FOR THE DEAD

MUSIC REVIEW
THE AGE

CONCERT of La Serpenta Canta Melbourne Concert Hall Jan 23 2001 by Fiona Scott-Norman

It was like a portal opening to another dimension on Saturday night, when Diamanda Galas performed her cycle of blues 'songs' LA SERPENTA CANTA (The Serpent Sings).

Galas is so powerful, so dread, and otherwordly, that it is hard to reconcile her as merely human. Of Greek heritage, raised in San Diego, but a denizen of New York and Berlin, she is an operatically trained "gothic" performance artist, singer and activist with a four-octave voice, dazzling innovative keyboard skills, a degree in immunology and a cult following.

In a l988 interview she said ," My voice was given to me as an instrument for inspiration for my friends, and a tool of torture and destruction to my enemies. An instrument of truth." And having seen her, I'd concur, she could kill with that voice if she wanted to.

She plays the piano like driving rain slapping on concrete, and she sings like a demon going to war, a valkyrie scatting, a lizard queen seeking revenge for the dead. Her voice, as strong as steel and as versatile as a German gymnast, sounds as if it howled through a sepulchre on the way to your ears.

Galas, who looks like a ravaged Morticia, did not speak a single word throughout her performance, and, a portrait of self-possession, sat almost entirely still.

Her songs included a desolate cover of the Supremes' hit My World is Empty Without You, Insane Asylum by Willie Dixon, and a chilling version of Johnny Cash's countdown on death row, 25 Minutes To Go {by Shel Silverstein} .

She also sang Screaming Jay Hawkins' I Put A Spell On You, The Dark End of the Street, and Supplica A Mi Madre, setting Pier Paulo Pasolini's words to her own music. Galas' performance is not gloomy or enervating, but is an exultant lamentation and passionate acknowledgement of human pain and sorrow.

She has long been associated with issues of retribution, contamination and moral awakening; her landmark recording, the Masque if the Red Death triptych, recorded from 1986-88, inspired in part by the death of her brother, Philip Dmitri Galas, set religious texts to music and was a requiem to those dead and dying from AIDS.

She performed it stripped to the waist and covered in blood in St.Patricks cathedral in New York.

Galas has "We Are All HIV+" tattoed on one hand, and her 1992 recording Vena Cava is a tribute to the destruction of the mind through AIDS. Her other current show, Defixiones, Will and Testament (in Perth on January 27), is dedicated to those who died in the Armenian and Anatolian Greek genocides of 1915 and 1922.

Galas is profound, rigorous, vocally unlimited, terrifying and utterly compelling. To see her live was a privilege, to hear her is to have your soul scoured clean.