Baylor Opera Theatre presents four performances of American composer Aaron Copland’s The Tender Land, beginning at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 3, through Saturday, February 5, and at 3:00 p.m. for the matinée on Sunday, February 6.
This fully staged Baylor Opera Theatre production of The Tender Land features students from the Vocal Division and the Baylor Symphony Orchestra, all under the baton of Jeffrey Peterson, Associate Professor of Vocal Coaching and Music Director for Baylor Opera Theatre. Stage direction is by producer Jen Stephenson, Assistant Clinical Professor and Director of Baylor Opera Theatre.
Commissioned in 1954 by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II for the League of Composers’ thirtieth anniversary, The Tender Land is Aaron Copland’s best-known opera. He took his inspiration from Walker Evans’s famous photographs of the American sharecropping families during the Great Depression, published together with James Agee’s 1936 report, "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men."
A vivid portrait of the rural mid-west a century ago, The Tender Land is painted richly with Copland’s quintessentially American harmonies and tells a beautiful story of a young woman’s coming of age.
Reserved tickets are priced at $15 from the Baylor University Theatre Department. For further ticket information, call the Theatre Department box office at 254-710-1865.