Awhile back, my daily calm meditation focused on “vividness.” This made me think of the line in the Boito version of Faust (Mefistofele):
“Stay – for you are beautiful”
Faust sells his soul to the devil, but his “safe word” is “Stay – for you are beautiful.” (I’m watching Killing Eve as I write this, so “safe word” is in my lexicon). His deal is, “I’ll go to hell with you unless I find the most perfect and wonderful moment that transcends everything I’ve ever done – and when that moment comes, I’ll go to heaven.” And when the Mefistofele is about to collect on his deal, because nothing has satisfied Faust, really, the heavenly host appears and it’s so incredibly perfect that Faust cries out, “Stay, for you are beautiful!”
It’s a moment of exquisite vividness, which, in this meditation was a quote from the mindfulness guru, Jon Kabat-Zinn:
Mindfulness is about being fully awake in our lives.
It is about perceiving the exquisite vividness of each moment.
When we sing, when we perform, we transcend the moment but we are simultaneously aware of the moment. We are “in the zone” but we know what is happening and we embrace it.
This was the moment where Faust experienced his “exquisite vividness” (as did I, when I sang in the chorus of this production at WNO in 1996). Have you experienced yours? Wake up – it’s there.
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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