ENTERTAINMENT

MOT's 'Tender Land' evokes the American heartland

Mark Stryker
Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

Michigan Opera Theatre's push beyond the borders of the Detroit Opera House has been couched in terms of audience building, but it's also paying artistic dividends by opening doors to modern and contemporary American repertoire that doesn't fit comfortably within the company's 2,700-seat downtown home.

Angela Theis as Laurie and Joseph Michael Brent as Martin in Michigan Opera Theatre's production of Aaron Copland's "The Tender Land."

Last year's foray to the Macomb Center for the Performing Arts brought Robert Xavier Rodriguez's 1991 opera "Frida," an opera-and-Broadway hybrid about the artist Frida Kahlo that benefited from the cozier confines of the 1,300-seat theater. MOT's alluring new production of Aaron Copland's "The Tender Land" (1954), which opened Saturday at the Macomb Center and moves to Taylor this weekend, is likewise too intimate for the opera house.

Copland's only full-length opera, "The Tender Land"  tells a coming-of-age tale a young woman on a Midwestern farm in the 1930s. She's caught between the smothering expectations of her family and her dreams of life and love beyond the borders of her rural town. Dramatic and musical flaws have kept the opera from cracking the standard repertoire. But MOT's rewarding production — highlighted by an energetic young cast and Monika Essen's attractive set design of blue sky, golden fields and functional A-frame structures — honors the best intentions of Copland's elegiac scores and Erik Johns' uneven libretto. The production makes a persuasive case that the opera deserves a higher profile.

The opera opens on the eve of Laurie Moss' graduation from high school. Preparations for a party are underway when two drifters, Martin and Top, arrive looking for work. The outsiders quickly find themselves victims of small-town prejudice as they are (falsely) suspected of having attacked a girl. Meanwhile, Laurie falls for Martin at the party, earning the wrath of her mother and especially her grandfather. The couple make plans to elope in the morning, but Top convinces Martin it would be a mistake and they leave town without her. Though overcome with anguish, Laurie — in a strong-willed act of independence and defiance — strikes out on her own.

Angela Theis as Laurie in Michigan Opera Theatre's production of Aaron Copland's "The Tender Land."

Modest in scale, the opera finds its soul in its honest evocation of the American heartland and the everyday people as familiar to us as our neighbors. Copland's wistful score captures the landscape in just a few bars of spare harmony, open intervals and melodies that rise and fall along the lyrical contours of folk song. The Act I finale, the beautiful quintet "The Promise of Living," unites the Moss family and the hobos in a harvest song pregnant with meaning; it's emotional resonance ranks with the best music Copland ever wrote. On the other hand, the composer fails to gather the cathartic intensity necessary at the key dramatic point in the opera  — when Grandpa Moss threatens to disown his granddaughter.

The libretto aims for colloquial language, but there's something stilted about it that never matches the sophisticated simplicity of the score. Not all of the characters are drawn in three dimensions, but the conflicts are real enough to sustain interest, and the ending packs a wallop. In a way, Laurie's life-affirming decision to leave home alone winks at the proto-feminist spirit of Nora famously slamming the door on her husband at the end of Ibsen's "A Doll's House" — both women are saying they don't need a man to complete their sense of self.

Copland wrote the opera specifically for young voices, and MOT was able to seed most of the cast with singers from its studio training program. As Laurie, soprano Angela Theis  sang with a light and lyric soprano that proved as charming as she looked in her gingham party dress. She mustered the grit to transform from ingenue to womanly maturity and walk off the stage, suitcase in hand, with the conviction that she's ready for whatever the world throws at her.  As Martin, Joseph Michael Brent's tenor had power and resonance, though the higher he went, the  more forced his voice sounded.

As Ma Moss, mezzo soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis sang with warmth and projection and captured the complex emotions of watching her daughter grow up quickly in front of her eyes. As Top, baritone Harry Greenleaf (not an MOT studio member) was a convincing rapscallion. As Grandpa Moss, bass Brent Michael Smith did his best, but, frankly, there's no way a singer of his age can convincingly inhabit a character that should be decades older and embody McCarthy-era paranoia. (When it's revealed that Martin and Top are not criminals, Grandpa bellows, "They're guilty all the same.")

MOT employed the savvy chamber orchestra arrangement of the score that Murry Sidlin completed in the 1980s. Conductor Suzanne Mallare Acton kept the music flowing naturally and had the 13-member MOT chamber orchestra playing with expression. Though from my fifth row seat, the ensemble too often covered the singers, particularly in the opening act. Jeff Michael Rebudal's square dance-inspired choreography enlivened the party scene. Kristine McIntyre's stage direction was straightforward and effective, slipping only in the final scene when, after Laurie's departure, her little sister Beth stands silently while staring into the middle distance — a cycle-of-life symbol that awkwardly goes on too long. It's one of the few false notes of the evening.

Contact Mark Stryker: 313-222-6459. mstryker@freepress.com

'The Tender Land,’  by Aaron Copland

Three out of four stars

Production repeats at 7:30 p.m. Sat., 2:30 p.m. Sun., Heinz C. Prechter Educational and Performing Arts Center, 21000 Northline Road, Taylor 

313-237-7464 or michiganopera.org

$50