Diamanda Galás

Portland Tribune, OR
Sept 3 2004

Don’t be put off by Diamanda Galás’ image as a real-life Cruella
de Ville, a diva (a word she hates) ever ready with a withering
put-down. She’s a lot of fun on the phone, cursing her way through a
series of topics from the trivial to the grim. Galás, who lives in
New York’s East Village, will perform “Defixiones: Will and
Testament,” which is about genocide everywhere, with particular
reference to Turkish atrocities against the Armenians and Anatolians
in 1915 and 1922, and “La Serpenta Canta,” her more user-friendly
collection of blues and folk covers.
Screaming Jay Hawkins is easy to get, but the audience will
benefit from reading the English translation of the amazing texts
that make up “Defixiones.” (They are in the liner notes and on her
Web site, )
“It’s a mass, and masses have been described as bloodthirsty, they
are the protests of large groups of people,” she says. “Mine are not
passive masses; they are for people who have not been able to find
peace or apology.”
Having said that, she accepts her responsibility to communicate
though music and foreign language, as is standard in opera.
Galás is a classically trained pianist who as a teenager played
with her Greek Orthodox father in a hotel bar band. (She says that
when you’ve played the Carpenters’ “On Top of the World” 15 times a
night, you have a right to reinterpret it). She’s not afraid to drag
her operatic voice through the mud in the spirit of making the crowd
feel something.
And she loves Portland. “I feel like I am coming home whenever I
play there,” she says. “The freaks are genuine freaks.”
— Joseph Gallivan

“Defixiones: Will and Testament,” 9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 10, Newmark
Theatre, 1111 S.W. Broadway
“La Serpenta Canta,” 9 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 12, Newmark Theatre,
1111 S.W. Broadway
For both shows, advance reservations are required for pass
holders; call PICA, 503-242-1419.