Music has been family affair for soprano Caitlin Lynch

Soprano Caitlin Lynch's musical pedigree is so extensive that it wouldn't be surprising to see songbirds perched on the branches of her family tree.

The Metro Detroit native sings Marguerite in Michigan Opera Theatre's (MOT) production of Gounod's "Faust," which opens Saturday at the Detroit Opera House.

The soprano's mother, Mary Callaghan Lynch, has sung in dozens of MOT performances and helped Aretha Franklin prepare for "Nessun dorma" at the 1998 Grammy Awards program.

Caitlin's grandfather was organist and choir director of Holy Name Church in Birmingham and glee club director at Brother Rice High School in Bloomfield Township. Her maternal grandmother was a piano teacher and "a mezzo with a beautiful voice," her granddaughter says.

Even Caitlin's father, a funeral director by profession — he's part of the family business, Lynch & Sons Funeral Homes — sang in community theater productions.

As if that musical strain weren't strong enough, in 2010, Caitlin married baritone Jonathan Lasch, who sang Marco in MOT's production of William Bolcom's "A View from the Bridge" last season. You have to think that the couple's 2 ¹/₂-year-old son, Brody, arrived singing, not crying, when he came into the world.

Music isn't just in this family's DNA, it is their DNA.

"Music was just part of daily life," Lynch says matter-of-factly between rehearsals at the Detroit Opera House. Yet she says her parents never pressured her into a musical career.

"I'll be forever grateful to my parents for that, especially my mother," she says. "She was never a stage mom. She kept her distance and let me do my own thing."

But there were moments of doubt for the young singer, who attended Holy Name in Birmingham and Marian High School in Bloomfield Hills. After her graduation from the University of Michigan, she bolted to Boston to take a breather.

"I had been in Michigan my entire life and didn't know if I wanted to continue with music," the soprano reveals. "I needed some independence and time to figure things out.

"I didn't sing, not even with my Indigo Girls CDs in the car," she says.

After six months, Lynch was in agony. "I became very unhappy very fast without music," she admits.

Her ascent in opera has been steady. She's already sung twice at MOT, in Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro" and "Don Giovanni" and has performed major roles around the country. In 2013, Lynch made her Metropolitan Opera debut in Zandonai's "Francesca da Rimini." She returned to the Met to sing in Nico Muhly's "Two Boys."

Although she calls Mozart "her comfort zone," Lynch also is attracted to contemporary opera. Before singing in "Two Boys," she sang in the world premiere of Muhly's "Dark Sisters." She also performed the world premiere of Jake Heggie's song cycle "Another Sunrise."

For Lynch, singing modern works "is something I absolutely adore and hope to never stop doing. It really feeds me in a way that repertory that's been around for hundreds of years doesn't do."

But for her current MOT role, Lynch is looking to the past; "Faust" debuted in 1859. However, the role will be fresh for Lynch because she's never sung the part before.

Gounod's work, loosely based on Goethe's tale of an aging man who sells his soul to the devil to regain his youth, is teeming with melody. Faust's love interest is the innocent Marguerite. Her big aria, the "Jewel Song," is glittering with trills and other vocal embellishments, but Lynch says the real challenge for her is more dramatic than vocal. As the opera unfolds, the once-naïve Marguerite goes insane and kills her child.

"She's a hard character for me to tackle," Lynch admits. "The interesting thing about Marguerite is that she undergoes such an enormous journey from the first moment we meet her, where she's wide-eyed and virginal, until her final moment.

"She's been sheltered, but Faust turns her world upside down."

As Lynch maps out Marguerite's journey, one thing is certain: Her musical family will be along for the ride in the audience.

George Bulanda is a Metro Detroit freelance writer.

'Faust'

Saturday through May 17

(Note: Lynch sings Saturday, Wednesday and May 16; Sarah Joy Miller alternates May 17).

Detroit Opera House

1526 Broadway, Detroit

Tickets $25-$128

(313) 237-7464

michiganopera.org.