Antony and the Johnsons: Swanlight

"'This is how it must feel to be an ovum,' the singer Antony Hegarty said with a tone of gentle amusement as latecomers flooded down the aisles of Alice Tully Hall during the concert he presented there on Saturday night. It was the second time this singer, who goes by his first name, stopped to let stragglers find their seats. Earlier he had abruptly cut off a song just started — 'Ghost,' from his rapturously lovely new album, 'Swanlights' — then tried to smooth over an awkward silence by whistling Satie’s 'Gymnopédie' No. 1. Where Antony is concerned, contradictions and unlikely transformations come with the territory. A hulking figure with a round, cherubic face and a curvilinear build, he has effected over the last decade an unlikely metamorphosis from drag-queen performance artist to imperious concert-hall presence via the artful chamber pop he has made with his band, Antony and the Johnsons" (Steve Smith, "Fluid Voice with a Fluid Persona Firmly Attached," New York Times, 10/31/10).

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