Candide is an operetta with music composed by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics primarily by the poet Richard Wilbur, based on the 1759 novella of the same name by Voltaire.Music Theatre International. Candide (1973) Other contributors to the text were John Latouche, Dorothy Parker, Lillian Hellman, Stephen Sondheim, John Mauceri, John Wells, and Bernstein himself. Maurice Peress and Hershy Kay contributed orchestrations.
The operetta was first performed in 1956 with a libretto by Lillian Hellman, but since 1974 it has been generally performed with a book by Hugh Wheeler,"A Guide to Leonard Bernstein's Candide by Michael H. Hutchins"Is This the Best Of All Possible Candides'?" by Walter Kerr, The New York Times. December 30, 1973 – via sondheimguide.com (original article at the NYT) which is more faithful to Voltaire's novella. Although unsuccessful at its premiere, Candide has overcome the unenthusiastic reaction of early audiences and critics, and achieved more popularity.
Origins Candide was originally conceived by Lillian Hellman as a play with incidental music in the style of her previous work, The Lark. Bernstein, however, was so excited about this idea that he convinced Hellman to do it as a "comic operetta"; she then wrote the original libretto for the operetta. Many lyricists worked on the show: first James Agee (whose work was ultimately not used), then Dorothy Parker, John Latouche and Richard Wilbur. In addition, the lyrics to "I Am Easily Assimilated" were done by Leonard and Felicia Bernstein, and Hellman wrote the words to "Eldorado". Hershy Kay orchestrated all but the overture, which Bernstein did himself.
Bernstein added, that in the song "I Am Easily Assimilated", there are personal connections to the lyrics as he mentions Rovno Gubernya, a governorate of the Russian Empire, in modern-day Ukraine, where his father grew up. As it rhymed with the rest of the text, he found it would be a comic element.
Performance history
1956 original Broadway production Candide first opened on Broadway as a musical on December 1, 1956, at the Martin Beck Theatre. The premiere production was directed by Tyrone Guthrie and conducted by Samuel Krachmalnick. The sets and costumes were designed by Oliver Smith and Irene Sharaff, respectively. It was choreographed by Anna Sokolow. It featured Robert Rounseville as Candide, Barbara Cook as Cunegonde, Max Adrian as Dr. Pangloss, and Irra Petina as the Old Lady. This production was a box office disaster, running only two months for a total of 73 performances. Hellman's libretto was criticized in The New York Times as being too serious:
A 1958 national tour of the production presented in concert format traveled to 60 American cities with Rouseville, Petina, and other original cast members reprising their Broadway roles. Mary Costa portrayed Cunegonde in this production.
European premieres
The first London production debuted at the Saville Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue on 30 April 1959 (after playing for a short time at the New Theatre Oxford and the Manchester Opera House). This production used Lillian Hellman's book with an additional credit 'assisted by Michael Stewart', and it was directed by Robert Lewis with choreography by Jack Cole. The cast included Denis Quilley as Candide, Mary Costa as Cunegonde, Laurence Naismith as Dr. Pangloss and Edith Coates as the Old Lady. The musical director was Alexander Faris.
Later productions Without Bernstein's involvement, the show underwent a series of Broadway revivals under the direction of Harold Prince. Lillian Hellman, the author of the original book, refused to let any of her work be used in the revival, so Prince commissioned a new, one-act book from Hugh Wheeler. The sole element of Hellman's book that remained was her invented name (Maximilian) for Cunegonde's brother. (The character has no given name in Voltaire's novella, and is referred to as "Cunegonde's brother" or "the young Baron".)
The lyrics were worked on by the team of artists listed above. This 105-minute version, omitting over half of the musical numbers, was known as the "Chelsea version", and opened in 1973 at Robert Kalfin's Chelsea Theater Center in the Brooklyn Academy of Music, before moving to the Broadway Theatre in 1974 and running there for nearly two years, closing in 1976 after 740 performances. The 1974 Broadway revival starred Mark Baker (Candide), Maureen Brennan (Cunegonde), Sam Freed (Maximilian), Lewis J. Stadlen (Dr. Pangloss), and June Gable as the Old Lady.
The Chelsea version was marked by a unique production style. Eugene Lee helped Prince make sure that the multi-scene show would not get bogged down in set changes – he created platforms for the action that allowed scenes to change by refocusing attention instead of changing scenery. Actors performed on platforms in front, behind, and sometimes between audience members. Some sat on bleachers, others on stools on the stage floor. As the story unfolded, so did the stage, with sections falling from above, opening, closing, flying apart or coming together. A 13-member orchestra played from four areas. The conductor, who wore period costume and gold braid, could be seen by audience and musicians alike on television monitors.Napoleon, Davi. Chelsea on the Edge: The Adventures of an American Theater
In response to requests from opera companies for a more legitimate version, the show was expanded on the basis of Wheeler's book. The two-act "opera house version" contains most of Bernstein's music, including some songs that were not orchestrated for the original production. It was first performed by the New York City Opera (NYCO) in 1982 under Prince's direction, and ran for thirty-four performances with a cast that included David Eisler as Candide, Erie Mills as Cunegonde, Deborah Darr as Paquette, John Lankston in the quintuple roles of Voltaire/Pangloss/Businessman/Governor/Gambler, Muriel Costa-Greenspon as the Old Lady, Scott Reeve as Maximilian, Don Yule as the Huntsman and Bulgarian Soldier, and James Billings as the Judge/Father Bernard/Don Issachar/First Gambler/Maximilian's Servant. The cast filmed the production for national broadcast on PBS's Live from Lincoln Center in 1982. The NYCO later recorded this version of Candide in 1985 with the same cast with the exception of the roles of Paquette (now performed by Maris Clement) and the Old Lady (now performed by Joyce Castle). This recording was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording in 1987. Opera companies around the world have performed this version, and the production has remained a staple of NYCO's repertoire with the most recent performance being given in 2019.
The Australian premiere in 1982 by the Nimrod Theatre Company and directed by John Bell at Sydney's Seymour Centre featured Philip Quast in the title role.Candide – Sydney's Nimrod Theatre Company, York Theatre 1982 Australia , details, reviews
In 1988, Bernstein started working alongside John Mauceri, then director of Scottish Opera, to produce a version that expressed his final wishes regarding Candide. Wheeler died before he could work again on the text, and John Wells was engaged. The new show was first produced by Scottish Opera with the credit "Adapted for Scottish Opera by John Wells and John Mauceri". After Bernstein had attended the final rehearsals and the opening in Glasgow, he decided that the time had come for the composer himself to re-examine Candide. Taking the Scottish Opera version as a basis, he made changes in orchestration, shuffled the order of numbers in the second act, and altered the endings of several numbers. Bernstein then conducted and recorded what he called his "final revised version" with Jerry Hadley as Candide, June Anderson as Cunegonde, Christa Ludwig as the Old Lady, Kurt Ollmann as Maximilian and Adolph Green as Dr. Pangloss/Martin. Deutsche Grammophon released a DVD (2006, 147 min.), in 5.0 surround sound, of the 13 December 1989 recording at the London Barbican Centre, with a bonus video prologue and epilogue from the composer and a printed insert "Bernstein and Voltaire" by narrative collaborator Wells explaining what Bernstein wanted in this final revised version. A CD version, without Bernstein's commentary or audience applause, was also released by Deutsche Grammophon.
In 1993 a special version of Candide was recorded for television with a cast that featured: Ethan Freeman (Maximilian), Doug Jones (Candide), Colleen Besett (Kunigunde), James Brookes (Voltaire), Debria Brown (alte Dame), Bärbel Müller (Paquette), Werner Hollweg (Governour), Heidi Eisenberg (Baroness), Karl Oblasser, John Capes, Denis Kozeluh. The show was performed in both English and German and featured a cast of popular West End and German theatre artists.
The operetta was produced by Lyric Opera of Chicago and performed in the Civic Opera House, with direction by Harold Prince, opening November 26, 1994. Book adapted from Voltaire by Hugh Wheeler, lyrics by Richard Wilbur, with additional lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and John Latouche. This revised opera house version formed the basis for the 1997 Broadway Revival."Candide, 1994 Lyric Opera of Chicago Production", sondheimguide.com, retrieved August 27, 2017
Candide was revived on Broadway in 1997, directed again by Harold Prince in a revised version of his 1982 New York City Opera staging. Lighting design by Ken Billington. The cast included: Jason Danieley (Candide), Harolyn Blackwell (Cunegonde), Jim Dale (Dr. Pangloss), Andrea Martin (Old Lady), and Brent Barrett (Maximilian).
In 1999, the Royal National Theatre produced Candide, with rewrites to Wheeler's book by John Caird. The production featured Daniel Evans, Denis Quilley, Alex Kelly and Beverley Klein, with musical direction by Mark Dorrell, and a recording was released on the RNT's own label.
A 2003 production in Japan starred Akinori Nakagawa as Candide.
Lonny Price directed a 2004 semi-staged concert production with the New York Philharmonic under conductor Marin Alsop. It ran for four performances, May 5–8, 2004. This production was also broadcast on PBS's Great Performances. The first-night performance was recorded and released as a DVD in 2005. The cast featured Paul Groves as Candide, Kristin Chenoweth as Cunegonde, Thomas Allen as Dr. Pangloss, Patti LuPone as the Old Lady, Jeff Blumenkrantz as Maximilian, and Stanford Olsen as the Governor/Vanderdendur/Ragotski with choruses from both Westminster Choir College and the Juilliard School completing the cast. This production included two rarely sung duets between Cunegonde and the Old Lady, "We Are Women" and "Quiet", which were included in Bernstein's 1989 final revised version.
In 2005, Candide premiered in Poland at the Grand Theatre at Łódź (conducted by Tadeusz Kozłowski, directed by Tomasz Konina).
In 2006, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the creation of Candide, the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris produced a new production under the direction of Robert Carsen. This production later played at La Scala in 2007 and the London Coliseum in 2008.
The Goodman Theatre in Chicago in a co-production with The Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington DC mounted a revised version adapted and directed by Mary Zimmerman featuring Hollis Resnik (2010), Lauren Molina (Cunegonde), Geoff Packard (Candide) and Larry Yando (Pangloss). The production, staged in a vast wooden box, with Candide's travels being portrayed through the use of maps and model ships, featured significant amounts of narration adapted directly from Voltaire's novel.Jones, Kenneth. "Lauren Molina and Geoff Packard Are Optimists of Goodman Candide Beginning Sept. 17" . Playbill, 17 September 2010