DIAMANDA GALÁS

Diamanda Galás has visited us twice – briefly – in the Festival Hall a little more than two decades ago and in Cankarjev dom a little more than a decade ago. The other end of the time loop, related to the “us” part, would be the following: it will be exactly three decades this year since the composer Vinko Globokar entrusted her with the main part in the opera Un Jour comme un autre for a festival production in Avignon. Taking Amnesty International documentation as his referential framework, he created the libretto on that basis and thus told a story about girls and women from Turkey found guilty of high treason. Diamanda’s personality and voice proved to be the right choice. And it was at that time that she started her life in Europe for the next decade, not yet having turned twenty-five. Soon she became known to a wider audience. The reason for this breakthrough lies in the album Plague Mass, which later became part of the famous trilogy The Masque of the Red Death (naturally named after E. A. Poe, her most rewarding writer, next to Pasolini, Michaux, Baudelaire, etc.). This open attack aimed at Roman Catholic policies which pretend ignorance as regards the AIDS issue, reached a climax with the notorious statement: “The church was made to burn with sound, not fire!” It is Diamanda Galás of all people who can firmly stand behind those words – soon to be with us for a third time, always at the right time!

Organisation: City of Women; In collaboration with: Kino Šiška Centre for Urban Culture; Embassy of the United States in Ljubljana; With the help of: Hotel Lev.