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Diamanda Galás review – a shriek at death by goth's high priestess

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Barbican, London
The American singer stretches her voice from mirror-shattering highs to demonic lows in an intense spiritual communion

In 1990, Diamanda Galás appeared on stage in the world’s second-largest cathedral, Saint John Divine in New York, half-naked and dripping in cow’s blood. Shocked audience members walked out, while the Roman Catholic church – whose bigoted attitude towards people with Aids had incurred Galás’s wrath and inspired her theatrics – called the avant-garde performance artist, composer, singer and pianist blasphemous.

Following a decade-long break from recording, Galás is celebrating the release of two new albums: At Saint Thomas the Apostle Harlem, a 2016 live recording of “death songs”, and a covers album of jazz and traditional songs called All the Way. But at this show, her reputation as the high priestess of goth enshrined, she has no need for such histrionics. Her capacity to dumbfound and disturb, however, remains resolutely undiminished.

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