DIAMANDA GALAS
London Barbican
19/06/2017
A real event drew your humble reporter to London once again – the return of the high priestess of darkness Diamanda Galas to the London stage after a gap of five years. Never a proposition to be taken lightly, we ballasted ourselves with nicotine and wine before heading through the thick air of the UKs hottest day of the year to the wonderfully modernist construct of the Barbican, which was full of the veteran (and long absent) goth elite of the capital. Big hair and black filled the stalls in a theatre that was acoustically perfect and visually stunning. This was going to be an experience to relish.
London Barbican
19/06/2017
A real event drew your humble reporter to London once again – the return of the high priestess of darkness Diamanda Galas to the London stage after a gap of five years. Never a proposition to be taken lightly, we ballasted ourselves with nicotine and wine before heading through the thick air of the UKs hottest day of the year to the wonderfully modernist construct of the Barbican, which was full of the veteran (and long absent) goth elite of the capital. Big hair and black filled the stalls in a theatre that was acoustically perfect and visually stunning. This was going to be an experience to relish.
Walking onstage in a
flowing black dress to a thunderous applause, Galas sat down at her
grand piano and started off lightly with the Jacque Brel number
'Fernand', setting the tone brilliantly with a arch
melodiousness before we were thrown into the pit with 'She' –
red stage floods and cacophonous piano virtuosity ripping a hole in
the hall filled by the siren wail of her seven-range voice. Eschewing
all but the bare minimum of patter (one song being dedicated to the
promoter, “A brave man....so few of them are”), Galas continued
with a dazzling collection of numbers that maintained the intensity
of the evening - 'A Soul That’s Been Abused', 'Die Stunde
Kommt' (Galas being truly
chilling singing in German), and
'O Prosfigas' amongst
them.
By
way of light and shade Galas performed several of her poems, listened
to keen and attentive silence. “You kill me, you kill me, you kill
me... I might kill you”, the words hanging in the Barbican air.
Then, ending with with a viscerally cathartic 'O Death',
the main bulk of the set was over.
Never
one to compromise to standard rockist niceties Galas came on stage
for each encore precisely one at a time, the crowd having to beg with
ovation after ovation as they were treated to 'Pardon Me
I’ve Got Someone to Kill', 'Anoixe Petra', and
finally a sublimely defiant 'Let My People Go'
which didn't need any polemical grandstanding to stand out as an
anthem for the outsiders, queer and oppressed.
No
support act, just 90 minutes banshee blues from the most unique
performer on the planet. Next time, don't miss it – I certainly
won't.
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