| Leonard Bernstein |
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Operas
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| Candide | |
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Playbill from 1974 revival |
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| Music | Leonard Bernstein |
| Lyrics | Richard Wilbur John Latouche Dorothy Parker Lillian Hellman Stephen Sondheim Leonard Bernstein |
| Book | Lillian Hellman Hugh Wheeler |
| Basis | Candide, novella by Voltaire |
| Productions | 1956 Broadway 1957 New York Philharmonic 1973 Broadway revival 1982 New York City Opera 1988 Scottish Opera Version 1997 Broadway revival 1998 Royal National Theatre 2004 & 2005 New York Philharmonic 2006 Théâtre du Châtelet 2008 New York City Opera 2010 Goodman Theatre (Chicago) & Shakespeare Theatre (DC) |
| Awards | Tony Award for Best Book Drama Desk for Outstanding Book |
Candide is an operetta with music composed by Leonard Bernstein, based on the novella of the same name by Voltaire.[1] 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[2][3] which is more faithful to Voltaire's novel. The primary lyricist was the poet Richard Wilbur. Other contributors to the text were John Latouche, Dorothy Parker, Lillian Hellman, Stephen Sondheim, Leonard Bernstein, John Mauceri, and John Wells. Maurice Peress and Hershy Kay contributed orchestrations. Although unsuccessful at its premiere, Candide has now overcome the unenthusiastic reaction of early audiences and critics and achieved enormous popularity. It is very popular among major music schools as a student show because of the quality of its music and the opportunities it offers to student singers.
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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.[4]
Candide first opened on Broadway as a musical on December 1, 1956. 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.[4] It was choreographed by Anna Sokolow. It featured Robert Rounseville as Candide, Barbara Cook as Cunégonde, 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 a The New York Times review as being too serious:[4]
| “ | When Voltaire is ironic and bland, [Hellman] is explicit and vigorous. When he makes lightning, rapier thrusts, she provides body blows. Where he is diabolical, [she] is humanitarian ... the libretto ... seems too serious for the verve and mocking lyricism of Leonard Bernstein's score which, without being strictly 18th century, maintains, with its gay pastiche of past styles and forms, a period quality.[4] | ” |
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 Manchester's 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. It ran for 60 performances.
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 for Cunegonde's brother: "Maximilian". The character has no given name in Voltaire's novella. 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 Broadway in 1974 and running there for nearly two years. 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.[5]
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 in 1982 under Prince's direction, and ran for thirty-four performances. Opera companies around the world have performed this version, and the production was a staple of New York City Opera's repertoire.
In 1988, by which point Hellman had died, 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, and Adolph Green as Dr. Pangloss. 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.
Ten years later (1999), when the Royal National Theatre in the UK decided to produce Candide, another revision was deemed necessary, and Wheeler's book was rewritten by John Caird. This book stuck far closer to Voltaire's original text than any previous version. The songs remained largely as Bernstein intended, bar a few more tweaks from Sondheim and Wilbur. This, the "RNT version", was a major success and has subsequently been performed a number of times.
Candide was revived on Broadway in 1997, directed again by Harold Prince. The cast included: Jason Danieley (Candide), Harolyn Blackwell (Cunegonde), Jim Dale (Dr. Pangloss), Andrea Martin (Old Lady), and Brent Barrett (Maximilian).
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 (2005, 116 min., 5.1 sound). The cast featured Paul Groves as Candide, Kristin Chenoweth as Cunegonde, Sir Thomas Allen as Dr. Pangloss, Patti LuPone as the Old Lady,and Janine LaManna as Paquette, 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 the more extensive Bernstein's 1989 final revised version.
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. The production was to move to Milan's Teatro alla Scala in 2007 and to the English National Opera in 2008. The production transforms the proscenium into a giant 1950s-era TV set, and has Voltaire, appearing as the narrator, changing channels between certain scenes. Carsen sets the action in a 1950s-1960s world, with an American slant commenting on contemporary world politics. This production was filmed and broadcast on Arte. For an open-house day in French opera houses on February 17, 2007, this video was projected in high definition on a screen filling the proscenium of the Théâtre du Châtelet.
Candide continues to be produced around the world, with recent notable productions and performances including:
Guildford School of Acting, Surrey. (2011)
Though the show as a whole received mixed reviews at its opening, the music was immediately a hit. Much of the score was recorded on an original cast album,[9] which was a success and is still in print as of 2009.[10]
Cunegonde's coloratura aria "Glitter and Be Gay" is a favourite showpiece for many sopranos. Barbara Cook's performance of the aria at its introduction impressed audience and critics, bringing her wide recognition;[11] This aria poses considerable difficulties. Technically, it is among the most fiendishly challenging coloratura soprano arias. If sung as written throughout (alternative phrases are provided at several points in the score), there are three high E-flats (above high C), two staccato and one sustained; there are also numerous uses of high C and D-flat. Some of the florid passages are very intricate, calling for marksmanship of the highest order. Theatrically, it demands an elaborate comic staging, in which Cunegonde adorns herself with jewellery while singing and dancing around the stage (much as does Marguerite in the "Jewel Song" of Gounod's Faust), and has a satirical quality that is a challenge to perform. Cook discussed the most difficult part of this aria—the "Ha ha hahahaha" section—with Renée Fleming for Opera News in December 2001:
| “ | Barbara Cook: It was terrible how nervous I was. I'd been singing stuff like "I'll be loving you always", and here I was singing Cunegonde. You know what else is hard with that thing? Lenny insisted on the "Ha-ha-ha"s really being "Hha-hha-hha"s. No "Ah-ee-ah-ee-ah"s but "Ha-ha-ha-HA-ha-ha"s. And I was never, never able to do it the way he really, really wanted it done. He wanted the ...
Renée Fleming: You mean the aspiration? Barbara Cook: Oh, that. I did do that. But what he wanted was the syncopation. So it would have to be [speaks, beating time], "Ha-ha-hahahaha. HAhahahaHAhahaha." You try that on for size. That's hard, because you are losing all that air. |
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Apart from Cook, most other singers of this aria generally simplify this section by eliminating the aspirated "H's" and sing staccati instead. Subsequent performers of the role of Cunegonde have included:
This aria has been performed in concert by many musical theatre and opera stars, including (in addition to those listed above): Diana Damrau (Munich, 2006, Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Zubin Mehta), Natalie Dessay, Renée Fleming, Edita Gruberová, Sumi Jo, Roberta Peters, and Dawn Upshaw.
The Overture to Candide soon earned a place in the orchestral repertoire. After a successful first concert performance on January 26, 1957, by the New York Philharmonic under the composer's baton, it quickly became popular and was performed by nearly 100 other orchestras within the next two years.[12] Since that time, it has become one of the most frequently performed orchestral compositions by a 20th century American composer; in 1987, it was the most often performed piece of concert music by Bernstein.[4]
The overture incorporates tunes from the songs "The Best of All Possible Worlds", "Battle Music", "Oh, Happy We", and "Glitter and Be Gay" and melodies composed specifically for the overture. Much of the music is written in time signatures such as 6/4 and 3/2, which are often combined with 4/4 and 2/2 to make effective 5/2s and 7/2s in places by rapid, regular switching between them and 3/2.
While many orchestrations of the overture exist, in its current incarnation for full symphony orchestra, which incorporates changes made by Bernstein during performances in December 1989, the piece requires a standard-sized contemporary orchestra of piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, an E-flat and two B-flat clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, a large but standard percussion contingent, harp, and a standard string section.[13] It is approximately four and a half minutes long. The theatre-sized orchestration, as in the published full score of the operetta, includes one flute doubling on piccolo, one oboe, two clarinets rotating between an E-flat, B-flat, and bass, one bassoon, two horns, two trumpets, two trombones, one tuba, standard orchestral percussion, harp, and strings. Main differences between the two are doublings and increased use of percussion effects (especially the addition of a drum roll during the opening fanfares) in the symphony orchestral arrangement. Differences between the first publication and later printings (of both orchestrations) include a slowed opening tempo (half note equal 132 instead of 152). An arrangement for standard wind ensemble also exists.
Dick Cavett used the "Glitter and Be Gay" portion of the overture at the midpoint of his ABC late-night TV show; it served as his signature introduction during the years the Cavett show aired on PBS.
At a memorial concert for Bernstein in 1990, the New York Philharmonic paid tribute to their Laureate Conductor by performing the overture without a conductor. This practice has become a performance tradition still maintained by the Philharmonic.[14]
The New York Philharmonic performed the Overture to Candide as part of its historic concert in Pyongyang, North Korea, on February 26, 2008.
This list is from Bernstein's "final revised version", recorded in 1989.[2][15]
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