Re: (none)

[cse0735@desire.wright.edu]

In article <9104062252.AA05735@aristotle.ils.nwu.edu>, barger@aristotle.ils.nwu.EDU (Jorn Barger) writes:
> Chris here,
> 
>    Vickie and myself are over here at Jorn's place of work, and he has let
> us catch up on gaffa. Too many interesting subjects lines to be able
> to respond to this time, but with any luck we will be be back in touch in a
> little while.
>    Wednesday night we experienced (no other word will work) Diamanda Galas
> at the Vic theatre. If you are not familier with her, she is a 
> "performance artist" with operatic vocal training. She performed "The
> Masque of the Red Death", a work inspired by Aids. Her brother died of
> Aids and the Masque deals with both the suffering of the victums and the
> hateful reactions of narrow-minded gay-bashers. It was one for the
> "Difficult Listening Hour".
> 
> Vickie here,
> 
> Yes, Diamanda was truly frightening! Brilliant, scary, sad, angry...like
> nothing else I've ever experienced in my life. Remember when Mt. St. Helens
> blew? Remember the pictures of the trees, stripped and bent over?
> That's what my eardrums felt like! We had the best seats in the house,
> right up front and just a few feet away from her a few times when she
> crawled toward the front of the stage. Terrifying!
 
Did anyone catch 20/20 (for those who don't know, a news magazine show on ABC
television) the other night when they showed a 16 year old girl being exorcised 
of her demons?  At one point her personality became "Minga", a short mexican 
woman who foretold of the coming wars and how God will be burning many people. 
Well anyways, portions of this sounded *EXACTLY* like the shrieking of Diamanda
Galas.  It didn't help that I was watching it alone in the dark but it scared
the hell out of me.  Diamanda has (I think) 5 albums:
The Litanies of Satan
Diamanda Galas
The Divine Punishment
Saint of the Pit
You Must Be Certain of the Devil
I own the Divine Punishment and Saint of the Pit on 1 CD and The Litanies of
Satan.  The last three on the list comprise "the plague mass" (Masque of the
Red Death) as Chris already mentioned.  The Divine Punishment is a collection
of Bible verses from the Old Testament sung in shrieking soprano, whisper,
gurgle, and multi-layered rumble with an insistent droning synth in the
background.  The Saint of the Pit is an "opera" using French poetry by Nerval,
Corbiere and Baudelaire.  Galas' vocals are more varied on this album which
is  both claustrophobic and mesmerizing.  I haven't gotten the third part of
the trilogy yet but I hear she does an a cappella version of "Swing Low Sweet
Chariot".  As I laid in bed after watching the exorcism I looked over at my CD
collection in the far corner.  Fitting snugly between Peter Gabriel and Game
Theory, both Diamanda Galas CDs were glowing.  yeah right.

Greg Blouch
Wright State University
Dayton, Ohio