The late composer Aaron Copland created a signature American sound in just a few distinctive orchestral works, including Appalachian Spring, Rodeo and Fanfare for the Common Man. Pungent excerpts from these pieces are a part of every presidential inauguration.
But his catalog is deep and not everything in it was one for the ages. His only full length opera “The Tender Land,” which is currently playing at Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, is a reminder that even the beloved Copland was a fallible human.
Outgoing Glimmerglass general manager Michael MacLeod made an admirable, if economic, decision in resurrecting the piece and casting it entirely with members of the company’s Young American Artist program. Some 800 singers apply every year for the program, one of more prestigious in the field. The chosen few – there were 38 this year – usually spend the better part of their summer playing small roles, singing in the chorus, and waiting in the wings as understudies.
This year they were in the spotlight. Too bad that they didn’t get a better opera to sink their teeth into.
“The Tender Land” (1952) is a troublesome piece primarily because of a thin story and the lousy libretto by Horace Everett (the pen name of Copland’s younger lover Erik Johns). It goes back and forth from mundane dialogue to attempts at poetry. The characters often announce their feelings (rather than letting the music communicate them) and certain words just get ground into the ground with repetition (“Will you hire a stranger? Yes, I’ll hire a stranger. Hey, he’ll hire a stranger. Now I’m not a stranger. No, you’re not a stranger”)
The score does up plenty of familiar, comforting Americana, especially in the lush instrumental writing. Glimmerglass’ former music director Stewart Robertson returned to conduct and got a mostly sumptuous sound from the orchestra. Occasionally the singers were covered a bit while some thin passages felt a bit frail and unsure.
Director Tazewell Thompson went for simplicity, an appropriate choice for the homespun theme and single unit set. Too often, though, he just didn’t give the singers enough to do. Some sprightlier tempos from Robertson might have also helped move things along.
On the other hand, at the end of the first act there was so much going on – the women doing chores, the men packing their bags – that it detracted from the brief pleasures of “The Promise of Living,” one of the opera’s two popular choruses. The other, “Stomp Your Foot,” could have used a real choreographer.
As the lead character Laurie, soprano Lindsay Russell sang beautifully and negotiated the emotional turns about as well as could be expected. In three short acts she goes being a moody school girl to a jilted women ready to face the world on her own.
Tenor Andrew Stenson as Martin had a sweet romantic voice, but it wasn’t quiet big enough for the house. His companion Top was played with more gusto by baritone Mark Diamond. As the grandfather, Joseph Barron hit all the bass notes with plenty of volume, but his authoritative anger was unvaried. Of the adult characters, mezzo-soprano Stephanie Foley Davis as the mother gave the most believable and well-rounded performance.
I arrived at Glimmerglass hoping for the best from “The Tender Land,” having good memories of production at Bard College’s SummerScape festival in 2005. But that performance was in an even more intimate theatre (about 150 seats as I recall) and of a chamber version arranged by Murray Sidlin, who added some of Copland’s “Old American Songs” into the score. They added some welcome life to the score and gave the chorus more to do. Bard’s production standards are also on a higher level than Glimmerglass lately. The sets for both productions had tall grasses in the background, yet Bard’s stage was a quarter the size and yet had far more interesting structural aspects.
Another kind of Americana is in store next summer at Glimmerglass, during Francesca Zambello’s first summer as the boss. The news that opera star Deborah Voigt will sing the lead in “Annie Get Your Gun” is a huge sign of the company’s new direction. (Read the full announcement of the 2011 season here.)
