Your Cape Symphony Orchestra will perform the music of Frank Sinatra at the Cape Cod Melody Tent on Sunday, August 10 at 8:00 PM. Award-winning Broadway star, hit concert headliner, and recording artist Sal Viviano will join the Orchestra to pay tribute to the music that defined a generation. “I am so looking forward to sharing this program with my good friend Maestro Francisco Noya, an intuitive and masterful interpreter of music of all kinds,” he says. “To have the pleasure of surveying these exquisite songs under his baton with the Cape Symphony is such a rare gift!” We caught up with Sal to talk about all things Frank:
What makes Sinatra’s music so special?
The particular magic of Sinatra's music is its sustainability. Like the music of the world’s greatest artists and composers, Frank's recordings and legacy will outlast us all, and continue to be immediately identifiable and recognized as the gold standard that it was when it was new.
As an artist, is it especially fun and/or challenging to perform it with an orchestra?
I have personally sung nearly 900 Concerts with Symphonic Pops Orchestras... and I can say without hesitation that singing and inhabiting the repertoire of iconic songs in Perfectly Frank - A Century of Sinatra with a full orchestra, playing all the vintage Sinatra arrangements for a live audience who also loves these songs, is among the most satisfying and rewarding challenges of my career… I want to give Frank's greatest fans... some of the essence of his musical mastery, to let everyone reminisce. That is the awesome power of these great songs… it's almost like getting to take a walk in Frank's shoes for a few hours.
What are your favorites of his songs?
I have always been a fully committed, 'in the moment' actor, so I will say quite honestly: the song I'm singing is my absolute favorite. I fall in love with each of them as I get inside of them, each time, using the unique circumstances and mood and texture of those with whom I'm getting to share the journey... the conductor, the orchestra, the audience; even the sometimes palpable presence of those who created the song; albeit usually in spirit.
Which do audiences love best?
It is an infinitely personal and deep connection… if you asked a hundred people which song they loved best, you'd get a wide array of answers with reasoning as varied as the people themselves: The song to which they fell in love.... the song that reminds them of their father... the song to which they learned to dance with a partner... the song that gave them the courage to start their own business... the song their mother sang to them. “My Way” is the anthem with which men of a certain age identify, and which tells the story of their success against all odds. “The House I Live In” remains a timeless reminder of the fragility and hopeful promise of this great Nation of ours, the inspiration of our greatest possibilities... “The Best Is Yet To Come” lets us each imagine ourselves walking with the seemingly carefree swagger of The Rat Pack at their zenith, when every woman and man wanted to ride that cooler than cool wave. “All The Way,” “It Was a Very Good Year,” “One For My Baby”… these are the standards, these are iconic… these are Sinatra.
It must feel great to reconnect people with this music. What goes through your mind as you see your audience taking it in?
The hope is to fulfill and even exceed their expectations... to move their hearts and minds, and for a time... to vacate the bounds of their current reality and find a path to the other world of the song, where they are included, and moved, and bettered, and relieved, and filled with the humanity of the message… That shared experience is so very personal and intimate, even in a hall seating a few thousand people, when it all goes “just so.”
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Tickets to Perfectly Frank: A Century of Sinatra are sold only though the Cape Cod Melody Tent. Secure your seats today!
