In the opera "The Tender Land" (1954), recent gay ancestor Aaron Copland and librettist Erik Johns probed the dark underside of American small town life-the swift progression from suspicion of strangers to condemnation to persecution and the eagerness to escape from its suffocating nature. The Bronx Opera Company (www.bronxopera.org), led by Artistic Director Michael Spierman, has a long history with "The Tender Land," having given it with Copland's input in 1976 and, four years after his death, with Johns' assistance in 1995. The company recently turned to "Tender Land" once again to open its 39th season, on January 13 at the Lovinger Theatre at Lehman College, with repetitions slated for the following day here and for January 20 and 21 at 2 p.m. at the Heckscher Theatre in the Museo del Barrio, 5th Avenue and 104th Street, in Manhattan. (For tickets at $20, 25 and 35, call 718/960-8833.) Assistant Conductor Elizabeth W. Scott presided on the first night, with Spierman responsible for the remaining hearings.

In the Midwest, during the Depression, Laurie Moss is on the verge of graduating from high school. Emily Albrink floats Laurie's rhapsodic reflections, on growing up and curiosity about other places, in an ingratiating lyric soprano. When strangers Martin, sung in a light tenor by Marc Schreiner, and Top, hearty baritone Justin Ryan, drift into town, family patriarch Grandpa Moss-sturdy if youthful looking bass Christopher Temporelli-hires them, regardless of the misgivings of Ma Moss (mezzo-soprano Abigail Fischer), Laurie's mother, to help with the harvest, and the five share homespun philosophy in "The promise of living, the promise of growing," a hymn-like quintet.

Singing tenderly, Albrink's Laurie and Schreiner's Martin fall in love at first sight. Schreiner lyrically limns Martin's expression of his desire to settle down. At Laurie's graduation party, after the full company participates in a lively square dance, and soprano Sonya Headlam, as Mrs. Jenks, begins a sweet sentimental ballad, sung in liquid tone, with Clea Nemetz as Mrs. Splinters, Ryan's Top causes a scandal with his drunken, raucous song, compounded when Temporelli's Grandpa catches Martin kissing Laurie. The townsfolk almost galvanize into a lynch mob until Mr. Splinters, the postman (Eric Monson), averts the sentiment against the drifters. Two different strangers, responsible for trouble in a nearby town, have been caught and confessed, which takes the heat off Martin and Top. Still brooding about that kiss, Grandpa curses the day Laurie was born and tells Martin and Top they must prepare to leave by morning.

Albrink and Schreiner's characters fret over their frustrations in an agitated duet, but resolve to elope, until Ryan, in Top's furious solo, talks some sense into his lovesick sidekick. Albrink conveys Laurie's excitement about the elopement, not knowing that Martin has left with Top and not caring that it is graduation day. Despite efforts of her mother and her sister Beth (Elizabeth Begnoche), headstrong dreamer Laurie acts on her resolve to 'light out for the territory,' without Martin, to make her own way in the world.

The fresh-voiced cast repeats these assignments on the 21st. Elizabeth Hillebrand, Marvin Scott, Peter Clark, Daniel Keeling, Leslie Swanson, Megan Candio, Suzanna Samuelson, Eve Orenstein, and Jameson James take over on the 14th and 20th, with Gene Howard appearing as Mr. Jenks in all performances.

Stage director Royston Coppenger guided the cast in conjuring both the homey and oppressive aspects of this tender land, and set and costume designer Meganne George, assisted by choreographer Rachel List and lighting designer Rychard Curtiss, gave the work an apt rural look.

The Bronx Opera will give Georges Bizet's popular "Carmen" at the Lovinger Theatre on May 11 and 12 at 8 p.m.-for tickets at $15, 25 or $30, call 718/960-8833-and the John Cranford Adams Playhouse at Hofstra University in Hempstead on May 18 at 8 p.m. and 19 at 2 p.m.-for tickets at $40, call 516/463-6644.