My Beloved Anti-Divas Pt. 3: Diamanda Galas by Kevin M.Hibshman

        No listing of anti-divas would be complete without Diamanda Galas as she personifies the term.

        During the past four decades of her career, She has used her singularly astonishing vocal abilities as a weapon. She has been labeled “a mourner for the world's victims” by exploring and revealing the terrifying realities suffered by AIDS patients, the mentally ill, and those killed by genocide in different locations and also by attacking those who would choose to ignore these crimes against humanity. 

        After playing in a few bands with musicians that included Henry Kaiser, Mark Dresser and Stanley Crouch, she made her solo stage debut in the role of a Turkish woman who was tortured and killed for alleged treason in Vinko Globokar's Un Jour comme un autre. This was part of the 1979 Festival d'Avignon held in France. She released her first album The Litanies Of Satan, an electronic opera in 1982. Her second album Diamanda Galas followed in 1984. She then began devoting her work to exposing and condemning the early  prejudice and exile forced upon AIDS suffers after her brother, the playwright Philip Dimitri Galas contracted the disease and died from it at age 32 in 1986. In 1989, her AIDS-related operatic trilogy, The Masque Of The Red Death was

released by Mute Records. This master work consists of three separate albums: The Divine Punishment (1986), Saint Of The Pit (1986), and You Must Be Certain Of The Devil (1988). Two of her recordings appear in Derek Jarman's 1987 film, The Last Of England and she appears in the 1990 documentary, Positive, about the AIDS crisis in New York City. She became an outspoken advocate and activist for AIDS victims and was arrested along with fellow members of ACT UP during a performance of her Plague Mass at Saint Patrick's Cathedral ,NYC in 1989. She has also done voice-over work for the 1982 film Conan The Barbarian, Wes Craven's 1988 horror film, The Serpent And The Rainbow, Francis Ford-Coppola's Dracula (1992), 2005's The Ring 2 and her unique version of “Dancing In The Dark” closes Clive Barker's 1995 film, Lord Of Illusions. Her most recent voice-over appearance was in James Wan's 2003 film, The Conjuring.

      1992 saw the release of her tribute album to the spirituals and blues songs she had grown up listening to and performing in her father's band. Her Greek Orthodox father, an accomplished musician, had taught her piano at the age of three. He would not allow her to sing, claiming singers were tone-deaf and mostly “idiots and whores.” In 1993, she released the live album, Vena Cava.

This recording deals with the psychological effects of isolation. She teamed up with John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) for 1994's The Sporting Life. This was an unexpected foray into rock although the intensity of her vocals, including the use of glossolalia and the darkly humorous subject matter, landed the album squarely in avant-garde terrain. 

        For those wanting an introduction to her work, I recommend  her 2003 album, La Serpenta Canta. Culled from live performances from around the world, this collection showcases the unbelievable versatility and range of this powerful artist. Accompanied by her own fierce piano playing, which combines classical, jazz, blues and avant-garde flourishes, Diamanda soars into previously unforeseen heights and leaves the audience breathlessly purged. Her rendition of Hank William's ballad “I'm So Lonely I Could Cry is utterly unforgettable as is her take on Ornette Coleman's “Lonely Woman” and her haunting delivery of The Supremes' classic, “My World Is Empty Without You.” 

        In addition to her recorded work, she also offers her neo-expressionistic paintings and has created installation pieces and a film, Schrei 27, with Davide Pepe in 2011. In 1996, The Shit Of God, a book of her lyrics was published. Diamanda was awarded

Italy's Demetrio Stratos International Career Award in 2005. Her work is not for the faint of heart as she goes to places few artists ever attempt. There has never been a singer as powerful and as versatile and doubtless ever will be again.