The
Great American Opera
The Tender Land
Aaron Copland
Michigan Opera Theatre
PBS
The eve of a farm
girl’s high school graduation, and the following day.
Spring harvest, two
men arrive for work. Farmhouse, bunkhouse, backdrop of close trees and golden
hills by Grant Wood or Millard Sheets.
The fine cast of
singers includes George Gaynes in the basso grandfather role, Copland is
conducting.
Two men had their
way with a neighbor girl, she’s expecting now.
Not these two. The
baritone tells a risky story at the party that night (dance by Eugene Loring),
Grandpa’s put to bed, the farm girl and the tenor fall in love.
Will he settle
down? The baritone talks him out of it. She’s hankering to leave, at
sunup she departs alone, suitcase in hand.
It’s a great
thing to get your high school diploma, she’s the first in the family, but
she leaves without it.
Her young sister
plays with her doll, Daniel, stops at the fence without it to look at the
hills.
Copland’s
faux key changes in the second love duet (Act III) express the lovers’
indeterminate purpose (cf. Old American Songs, “Zion’s
Walls”, which figures in the opera as “The Promise of
Living”).