A Conversation with the Moss Family of PCO’s “The Tender Land”
I recently spoke with Rachel Kobernick (Laurie Moss) and Laura Zahn (Ma Moss), who will be starring in Park City Opera’s upcoming July 2026 production of Aaron Copland’s The Tender Land.
If you’re not familiar with the opera yet, I encourage you to explore our interactive guide to the show! The story centers around Laurie – a girl in rural America, on the eve of her graduation day – as she makes choices about her future.
Ben: Laura and Rachel, tell me about your relationship to The Tender Land. When did you first hear about it, and why are you excited to do it?
Rachel: "Laurie's Song" (“Once I thought I’d never grow tall as this fence”) was the first aria I was assigned by my high school voice teacher. I've always been peripherally aware of the piece, but it was always one of those operas where people would say, "Oh yes, there's that great aria, but don't worry about the rest of the opera. You'll never see it performed." So this is really my first time hearing other parts of it.
I had the sense that it was just good old Americana, almost like the musical Oklahoma! in operatic form. Now that I've really listened to it and gotten into it, there is so much more incredible music. I think it's a hidden gem. I've always loved Copland, and Appalachian Spring was one of my favorite orchestral pieces growing up, so it's been cool to hear snippets of that sound world throughout the opera.
Laura: As it turns out, Rachel and I had the same voice teacher in high school, both growing up in West Chester, PA! I was also assigned "Laurie's Song," and I loved it. I’ve encountered other bits and pieces of the opera over the years. I've sung a choral rendition of "The Promise of Living." I was a violinist for a while, and in high school orchestra we played excerpts from Appalachian Spring. That’s not from the opera, but you can feel the influence.
I had not heard much of Ma Moss's music until I sat down and started learning it. There are a lot of interesting and compelling moments in her music and her character, and there are these gorgeous moments that really call back to Americana in Copland's writing.
Ben: It's appropriate that you both mention Appalachian Spring: Copland went through quite a number of stylistic periods in his life. In his youth, he was very interested in European modernism and contemporary musical developments. Then in his middle career, he became interested in finding a populist “American” sound. That period gave us some of his most famous music, like Appalachian Spring, Fanfare for the Common Man, and other works – including The Tender Land.
Ben: Let’s chat a little bit about your characters! The opera opens and closes with scenes between Ma Moss and her younger daughter, Beth. Over the course of the opera, Ma Moss comes into great conflict with Laurie, her older daughter. How do you approach the differences between these two scenes?
Laura: Ma Moss is very protective of her daughters. So protective. I think that in the beginning, she sees Laurie almost as a reflection of herself. A lot of parents fall into that trap, especially with the eldest child. There is a lot of pressure put on the eldest.
Through the turmoil and conflict that happens in the opera, Ma Moss starts to see her children as human beings with their own individuality, not just as reflections of herself or of what she hopes for them. There is a moment at the end where she turns to Beth, and the stage directions say that “it is as though she is seeing Beth for the first time.” She is talking about new beginnings, and I think in a way those new beginnings include how she views her daughters, the world, and their place in it.
Ben: Speaking of daughters, in some ways Laurie is a very familiar character. She is an American girl graduating from high school and contemplating the life ahead of her, which is something many people can understand. But in other ways, she is dealing with the tight confines of a rural society and very strict standards imposed by her family. What parts of Laurie feel familiar to you, and what feels foreign?
Rachel: I think the element of place and time is the more foreign part for us today. The rest of it is completely relatable: that transitional moment of graduation in any phase of your life.
When you're a senior in high school, you think you are the most grown up you've ever been. You're on top of the world, and at the same time you have almost zero responsibilities. It can be an amazing time, but there is also uncertainty and vulnerability in leaving home.
With Laurie, I think there is this element of being so ready for change. I think that’s why she is able to fall in love with Martin so quickly – it is possible in part because she is so open to and ready for change.
[On the other hand,] Laurie feels a sadness and discontent with her life. I think that comes from the constraints of her small, insular community. That is the impetus for [most of the conflict in the opera]. If she lived several years in the future, or in a bigger city, she might have more personal freedom and be able to follow her impulses without as much familial conflict.
Ben: Laura, what is your relationship to the familial role you are playing? What do you bring from your relationship with your mother or with other mothers in your life?
Laura: I'm not a mother, but the closest I’ve come is with an adopted dog. She was a rescue and a “failed foster” (I was fostering her and then kept her). She's a very sweet elderly lady!
I come at the character of Ma Moss from the angle of being a daughter. I come from a more conservative family, and also a family that is unfamiliar with the arts in general. Everyone has worked a nine-to-five. And here I am exploring the arts, traveling a lot, and doing things that my own mother doesn't always understand. She’s always saying, "we don't know where you are next, I can't keep track of your schedule!"
I have seen her grapple with her child doing something that she doesn't understand, something outside her idea of how the world works – just as Ma Moss does in the show. There is a lot of love, and a real attempt to support and understand. But some things lie outside the ability for that understanding.
Ben: Rachel, can you tell us about being a daughter? Do you have siblings?
Rachel: I don’t have siblings. Though I’m an only child, I've never really felt like one, and part of that is because I'm so close with my parents. I've always felt like we are the best of friends.
As far as Laurie goes, I think she really does love and trust her parents and wants to do what they want. I've always had that impulse, too, to a fault. [In coming into adulthood], I had to launch myself in a way that was uncomfortable at the beginning, because I grew up in such a supportive, close, safe environment. It was scary for me to be on my own; Laurie faces these same fears.
I also enjoy re-exploring those elements of childhood. I think because I was really lucky to have a great childhood, I find it joyful to go back in time. It also feels like those moments of our lives go by insanely quickly, which is a big theme in the opera. High school feels not that long ago to me, and I vividly remember that era of my life. It is a fun thought experiment to dive back into that place.
Ben: I think all of these characters in The Tender Land feel very real, which is one of the highlights of working on this show. So often in opera, we see archetypes, or characters who may have felt real in the 1700s or 1800s but do not feel quite as vivid to us now. These people are Americans in the 1930s. They are people who could be our grandparents or great-grandparents. Who knows, Laurie could still be alive today!
What are your favorite musical highlights from the show? What should people get excited for?
Laura: I'm really loving Ma Moss’s dress aria. It is so simple, but there's something there that I personally can really hold onto. I'm in my late thirties now, and there is this sense of, "Oh, this is something I would have worn when I was a teenager." But it is also attached to her daughter, and to such an important day in her daughter's life.
There is so much tenderness in the writing there. It is so simple, but there is something about how the melody moves that really captures longing and nostalgia, and also hope. It is all in there. I think it is a stunning little bit of music.
Rachel: The Tender Land feels like a “moment piece” to me. A moment will just hit you, and you think, "That is so gorgeous."
I really love the Martin-Laurie duet at the end of Act II, especially the recitative at the beginning which has these descending, gorgeous chords. I also love the “title drop” in the duet.
The plains so green. The tender land
where we begin to understand.
We’ll take the dreams we’ve dreamed apart
and plant them in each other’s heart.
When Laurie and Martin actually say "the tender land" in their confession of love to each other, it makes me reconsider why the opera is called that. I never thought about the title in that framing before hearing it in the duet.
Ben: That's beautiful — the title becomes part of their confession of love, built on Martin's promise of staying in this place, building a home, and cultivating a life.
See Rachel, Laura, and the rest of our cast inThe Tender Land on July 18th and 19th at the Temple Har Shalom in Park City. Tickets are available now!
