Plague Mass is a live album by American avant-garde artist Diamanda Galás. It was recorded on October 12 and 13, 1990 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York City and released on April 1, 1991 by record label Mute.
Background Plague Mass was performed as a culmination of Galás' previous 3 albums about the AIDS epidemic (known as the "Masque of the Red Death" trilogy). Before its eventual performance at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine & commercial release Plague Mass is listed as having been performed "... in Berlin, Basel, the Helsinki Festival, and the Festival delle Colline at the Villa Medicea di Poggio a Cainao in Italy."The Programme for Plague Mass https://archive.thekitchen.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Program_Galas_Plague.pdf These performances got Galás publicily denounced by members of the Italian Government for "commiting blasphemy against the Roman Catholic Church".
Content
AllMusic described the performance as a "heart-wrenching cry about the physical suffering caused by the AIDS plague being compounded by the shameful arrogance of self-appointed moralists."
Reception
Trouser Press described it as "sepulchral, breathtakingly dramatic and, in the best possible sense, appalling".
It was placed on Terrorizer's list of the "100 Most Important Albums of the Nineties".
Track listing Note that the live performance originally included 2 other tracks not present on the official release: "Job:10" and "Lamentations". In the album's liner notes it is said these were excluded due to "...the time limitations of the CD configuration".
Personnel Credits adapted from the album's liner notes.Plague Mass (Liner notes). Diamanda Galás. Mute Records. 1991. CDSTUMM 83.
Musicians Diamanda Galás – vocals, grand piano, arrangement David Linton – drums, percussion Blaise Dupuy – electronic keyboards Ramón Diaz – electrones percussion Michael McGrath – tapes & electronic Roy Acuff - arrangement & writing
Production Paul Prestopino – technical engineer Simon Nathan – engineer Scott Widney – engineer DigiDesign – sound tools (recording edited with)
Recording Record Plant Remote – live recording Kooster McAllister – mobile recording engineer
Stage Production Chuck Cavanaugh – audio stage manager Dan Dryden – live sound mix ProMix – sound reinforcement Dan Kotlowitz – lighting design Charles Atlas – staging, artistic consultation Marc Warren – production stage manager Eric Osborn – stage manager
Packaging & Business Tom Caravaglia – photographs (booklet, front & back cover) David Whyte – consultant to (D. Galás) "Thanks to Sally Dricks, Barbara Mayer, Linda Greenberg, Aldo Hernandez, Conyars Thompson, Daniel Miller, Peter Wright, Jed Wheeler, Philip Glass, Randy Hansen, Robert Hilferty, Carl Valentino, Michael Flanagan, and Tim Holmes"
"Special Thanks to Beth Bellis of Mute Records"
Release history Region Date Label Format Catalog United Kingdom 1991 Mute CD, LP STUMM 83GermanyINT 192.724 United States CD, CS 9-61043JapanCDALCB-300
References
External links