Michigan Opera Brings The American Songbook To Saline

Forty seniors from the Saline Area Senior Center and elsewhere turned out on Thursday’s hot afternoon to take in a show by the pros. Three performers from the Michigan Opera came to Saline to sing several tunes from The American Songbook, theatre and movie songs from the mid twentieth century.

Pam Molascon, of the Saline Senior Center, helped set up the show.

“It s a nice way to spend a warm afternoon,” she said. 

Molascon explained how this was one activity for the seniors that she didn’t have to seek out. 

“They called me,” she said. “The Michigan Opera is able to visit communities because of a grant from the Mary Thompson Foundation, and we were happy to have them come.” 

The trio will do sixteen performances around Michigan this tour.

Mark Vondrak and Maria Cimarelli sang for nearly an hour, accompanied by pianist Joseph Jackson. They opened with a ragtime number by composer Irving Berlin, and followed with several of Berlin’s numbers. 

“This next one is a sing-a-long,” Vondrak said. 

Members of the audience knew several of the numbers and were not shy about joining in. For example, everyone was tapping their toes and “Puttin’ On The Ritz,” making the performance very interactive with the crowd.

Not only did Vondrak and Cimarelli sing, they gave brief histories of each composer or lyricist they sang from. Cimarelli talked of Jerome Kern as the “father of the modern American musical,“ Rodgers and Hart and their distinct differences, and of course, Ira and George Gershwin. They sang “Love Is Here To Stay,” the last song written by the Gershwins before the death of Ira at age 38. 

“Dorothy Fields was a very successful woman in the industry, although her father had not wanted her to go into show business,” Cimarelli explained. “Good girls didn’t do things like that."

Fields went on to write the hit musical “Sweet Charity” in the 1960s, which premiered right here at the Detroit Fisher Theater, she said.

Audience member Frank Pope knew many of the songs and the answer to every bit of trivia. 

“The Great American Songbook is my favorite,” he said. 

He spoke of how important shows like Thursday’s performance are.

“Anything that promotes the perpetuance of music that you can still sing to is a good thing,” said Pope. “These are songs you can whistle too after you hear them, unlike a lot of songs today.”

The Michigan Opera performers finished with “Delovely” by Cole Porter, and a sure appreciation from the audience.

Click on the links here for more information about the Michigan Opera Community Outreach program or the Mary Thompson Foundation.

Download the movie

Download the movie