I can now sing the repertoire that caused people to say, “Ms. Thomas, why are you singing this aria?” back in my 20s.
I’ve started working with Connie Haas – I had a couple of lessons with her before she went to teach at Eastman a few years ago but by the time I could afford to have lessons on a regular basis again, she’d started teaching in Rochester. Now she’s back, and I want to get back on the “someone listen to me” train again.
It’s going well – she speaks in the same kind of language I speak in to my students, and it cracks me up when she’ll say “Does that make sense to you?” because I say that all the time, usually after I’ve made some bizarro request to my student that they then manage to execute with the exact outcome I wanted.
So we’ve decided to work on some heavier mezzo rep, and for the last two days I’ve sat down and sung through “O mio Fernando” and “Stride la vampa” (!!!) and man, does that feel good.
Sometimes aging doesn’t suck.
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Published by Mezzoid Voice Studio
Christine Thomas-O'Meally, a mezzo soprano and voice teacher currently based in the Baltimore-DC area, has performed everything from the motets of J.S. Bach to the melodies of Irving Berlin to the minimalism of Philip Glass.
As an opera singer and actress, she has appeared with companies such as Charm City Players, Spotlighters Theatre, Chicago Opera Theater, Opera Theater of Northern Virginia, Opera North, the Washington Savoyards, In Tandem Theatre, Windfall Theater, The Young Victorian Theater of Baltimore, and Skylight Opera Theatre. She created the role of The Woman in Red in Dominick Argento’s Dream of Valentino in its world premiere with the Washington Opera and Mary Pickersgill in O'er the Ramparts at its world premiere during the Bicentennial of Battle of Baltimore at the Community College of Baltimore County. Other roles include Mrs. Paroo in Music Man, Mother Abbess in Sound of Music, Dorabella in Cosi Fan Tutte, Marcellina in Le Nozze di Figaro, both Hansel and the Witch in Hansel & Gretel, and many roles in Gilbert & Sullivan operettas. Her performance as the Housekeeper in Man of La Mancha was honored with a WATCH award nomination.
Ms. Thomas-O'Meally received an M.M. in vocal performance from the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. She regularly attends master classes and workshops in both performance and vocal pedagogy, and is certified in all three Levels of Somatic Voicework™ The LoVetri Method. Her students have performed on national and international tours of Broadway productions, at prestigious conservatories, and in regional theater throughout the country.
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