Weather – specifically precipitation – has been the bane of my existence. I’ve had shows sabotaged by blizzards and ice storms. Birthdays rained on for 6 years in a row, including my graduation from high school on my 18th birthday. And I held a graduation party three days later. It rained then too. It’s enough to give you a complex.
However, some of my favorite songs have been about rain.
Just noticed that both of those songs are by the same composer, Harvey Schmidt.
The song that started me on my journey as a singer was about avoiding rain. Metaphorical rain, but rain, nevertheless.
Tomorrow afternoon, the Mezzoid Voice Studio is scheduled to hold a semi-live, semi-virtual recital out in my backyard. And there is an 80% chance of thunderstorms. Not just rain, but thunderstorms. My plan was to have people sing live, interspersed with videos sent to me by some of my past students and ones who weren’t comfortable singing live in public during the pandemic.
DON’T RAIN.
JUST THIS ONCE.
But if it does, I will ask my students who were scheduled to sing to self-tape themselves (it’ll be a good exercise!) and submit the videos to me. I will then create a playlist of videos from those and the people who had submitted them for the live recital and then send them out to my studio.
Resilience. Adaptability.
These are good traits as a singer. And a teacher.
But still. Let’s hope it doesn’t rain.
What are your favorite songs about rain? Or weather in general?
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.
View more posts