Copland, Aaron: The Tender Land (1952-54, rev.1955) 100'
Opera in three acts

Music Text  
Libretto by Horace Everett (E)

Scoring
2S,M,A,2T,2Bar,B,speaker; chorus 2(II=picc).1.corA.2(II=bcl).2-2.2.2.0-timp.perc(2):glsp/tgl/SD/wdbl/ xyl/susp.cym/ratchet/BD/slap stick/tabor/sandpaper-harp-pft(ad lib)- strings Chamber version by Murry Sidlin (1987): 1.0.1.1-0.0.0.0-pft-strings(4.0.2.2.1).
Abbreviations (PDF).

Territory
This work is available from Boosey & Hawkes for the world.


For full details on this stagework, including synopsis and roles, please visit our Opera section.


World Premiere
4/1/1954
City Center, New York, NY
Jerome Robbins, director / New York City Opera / Thomas Schippers


World premiere of version
5/20/1955
Oberlin College
Oberlin Conservatory Opera Laboratory


Programme Note  
Following the less than enthusiastic reception of his only full length opera, Copland arranged an orchestral suite from the score. It includes the love duet, the lively square dance, and the stirring and beautiful The Promise of Living drawn from the quintet at the end of the opera's first act. The composer was gratified when the Suite garnered the good reviews he had hoped the opera would inspire. In 1996, Murry Sidlin created a new suite for soprano, tenor and chamber ensemble based on his successful reduced orchestration of the opera, which uses the same scoring as the 13 instrument version of Appalachian Spring.

-Vivian Perlis, 1998

 

Recommended Recording
Elisabeth Comeaux, Janis Hardy, Maria Jette, LeRoy Lehr, Dan Dressen, James Bohn, Vern Sutton, Agnes Smuda, Merle Fristad, Sue Herber, Plymouth Music Series Chorus, Plymouth Music Series Orchestra, Philip Brunelle
Virgin Classics VCD7592532

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