Epic and catharsis fall short. A goddess of darkness, a fallen angel in black latex, a Mary Magdalene before the crucifixion, another icon like Madonna... Lady Gaga is all that and more: the provocative Messiah of pop, the superstar capable of building a gothic-cabaret cathedral at every concert. Because The Mayhem Ball is not just a tour, it reaches stadium opera proportions, and she emerges from the Darkness amidst a sea of red lights like a Jesus Christ Superstar, as our Rigoberta Bandini would say.
Beneath her baroque blood-red velvet dress, mounted on a five-meter structure, hides a cage from which her demonic dancers emerge. The nearly 18,000 souls filling the Sant Jordi seem more like her apostles with red glowing wristbands, an army that will grow to over 53,000 'little monsters' (as her fans are called) across her three shows, all of which sold out in just four hours for her only stop in Spain.
Lady Gaga starts with a mystical trinity, an electronic trance in the name of Mary Magdalene ('Bloody Mary'), of witches ('Abracadabra'), and of traitors ('Judas'). She culminates with 'Aura' and the harsh industrial 'Scheibe' - from the 2011 album 'Born This Way' - her particular tribute to Berlin's 'underground' scene where she also sings in German. We can't help but think of Rosalía's newest song, 'Berghain,' released on Monday, named after the techno temple club. Gaga herself contributed to the legend that her song was born in "the bowels of Berghain, where shit [scheibe] turns into gold." And for a moment, Sant Jordi transforms into that Berghain where anything can happen, with Gaga shedding her opera diva dress to reveal another skimpy black latex outfit. In an operatic and orchestral interlude, she exclaims "¡Arriba España!" and performs one of her Olympic-worthy choreographies before ending with 'Poker Face,' an intense first act aptly titled 'Of Velvet and Vice.'
This theatrical piece unfolds in four acts - whether "a gothic dream," "a beautiful nightmare," or "a chessboard with two queens" - lasting two and a half hours, with nearly 30 songs and all her anthems, from the latest hit 'Die with a Smile' with Bruno Mars, a romantic ballad that won the Grammy for Song of the Year, to early hits like 'Paparazzi' (performed with a blonde princess wig and warrior armor with crutches that she later discards, liberated from pain), 'Alejandro,' and the classic 'Just Dance,' the first single through which a certain Stefani Germanotta introduced herself to the world as Lady Gaga in an April 2008 that seems distant.
Since then, Gaga has done it all: winning 15 Grammys, an Oscar, breaking record after record on the charts, filling Copacabana beach with over two million spectators, captivating the world with Bradley Cooper in 'A Star is Born' (singing 'Shallow' on a gondola through the mist dressed like a Venetian carnival: once again, a powerful vocal apotheosis, echoed by all of Sant Jordi)...
The tour de force of this tour that began in Las Vegas - her personal holy city where she has set up the Haus of Gaga gallery - demonstrates why she is at one of the peaks of her career, with nearly 90 concerts worldwide. Without slowing down, Lady Gaga merges opera, burlesque, electronic, pop, the most outlandish aesthetics... everything. With a virtuosity and attitude only she possesses, with a voice that at times approaches that of a soprano.
She saves 'Bad Romance,' the hit that solidified her, transitioning from queen to goddess. She gives it such importance that she reserves the song as an extra act, 'Eternal Aria of the Monster Heart,' where she proclaims: "We are monsters, and monsters never die." Before starting, lying on a stretcher like an exquisite corpse that comes back to life, she says in perfect Spanish: "What's up, little monsters?" Gaga oh la la... flames on a stage on fire - both literally and metaphorically - but the true pyrotechnics is herself.
In the very last surprise song, which changes at each concert, she plays 'Perfect Illusion,' almost unmasked and dressed in a simple leather jacket and a black cap. And the Gaga fantasy fades away, that illusion that restores faith in monsters.