Toronto City Opera will present Aaron Copland’s The Tender Land to close out their 2024/25 season. The opera hits the stage at the Al Green Theatre on June 18, 21 and 22.
It’s one of the American composer’s lesser known works, and because of its intimate nature, is not often performed by large opera companies.
Aaron Copland: The Tender Land
The Tender Land was written by Aaron Copland to a libretto by Horace Everett. Everett was a pseudonym for Erik Johns, a dancer who lived with Copland as his secretary/lover at the time. It was Copland’s only full length opera, and premiered in 1954.
Copland began working on the opera in 1952, based on a book of photographs of Depression-era sharecroppers, or tenant farmers. It was Everett/Johns who came up with the story about a poor farming family in the midwest whose lives are changed when two drifters arrive in town.
The opera was originally commissioned by the NBC Television Opera Workshop with the intention of premiering on TV, but the television producers rejected the piece. The work that eventually premiered in April 1954 was a shorter version in two acts. The work, and it was critiqued for both characters and storyline.
Johns and Copland subsequently expanded the opera to a three-act format, which was found a much better reception with critics and audiences.
The Story
In a Midwest town during the Great Depression and the dust bowl era of the 1930s, when frequent and devastating dust storms were causing extreme ecological and agricultural damage, a young farm girl named Laurie is graduating from high school. She’s thinking about the future as she prepares for her upcoming graduation party with her family. Laurie’s conflicted; she wants a life outside the confines of her small town rural life, but her connections with her family and home are deep.
At this moment, two strangers arrive in town. Rumours swirl around them, bringing Laurie’s inner conflicts into sharp focus.
The music incorporates elements of folk songs from the era and region, and captures both sides of Laurie’s dilemma.
Personnel
Jennifer Tung conducts, with pianist Ivan Estey Jovanovic, and Mabel Wonnacott directs.
The Cast:
- Emily Rocha as Laurie Moss
- David Walsh as Martin
- Ben Wallace as Top
- Jennifer Routhier as Ma Moss
- Daniela Carréon as Beth Moss
- Matthew Black as Grandpa Moss
- Alvaro Vazquez as Mr. Splinters
- Maria Milenic as Mrs. Splinters
- James Coole-Stevenson as Mr. Jenks
- Vivien Illion as Mrs. Jenks
- and the Toronto City Opera Chorus as the farm community
The performance is fully staged with piano accompaniment, and is sung in English with English supertitles.
Find tickets and more details [HERE].
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