Candide

Brilliant, energised, uptempo, highly charged, the overture to Candide could have been Bernstein’s signature tune; and it opens a piece whose hybrid nature is somewhere between comic operetta and an intellectual Broadway musical. Never an easy project, Candide’s words and music underwent extensive revisions over 30 years, with a conveyor belt of collaborating librettists and no definitive version to show for it. But the governing idea, which premiered in 1956, was to adapt Voltaire’s satirical novella about a young innocent, the eponymous Candide, as he passes through roller-coaster adventures and learns a philosophical life-lesson in the process: that the world is neither good nor bad, and we have to make the best of it. Described by Bernstein as his valentine card to European music, Candide is exuberant with parody as Baroque chorales make shotgun marriages with fairground waltzes, Classical duets with Broadway ballads. Quick-change rhythms sweep a complicated plot through equally fast-moving ups and downs, with crazy coincidences and characters who refuse to die—in affectionate mockery of operatic conventions. Highlights include “Glitter and Be Gay” (a homage to the “Jewel Song” in Gounod’s Faust) calling for an outstanding soprano with substantial coloratura prowess. The score’s smaller character parts are a gift to veteran opera stars who seize the opportunity to let their hair down.