Book adapted for the New York Philharmonic by Lonny Price
CAST
Baron / Inquisitor / Don Issachar / Cacambo - Michael McCormick
Baroness / Sheep - Gina Ferrall
Paquette - Janine LaManna
Judge / Aide / Prefect / Governor - John Herrera
Judge / Captain / Crook - Michael McElroy
Heresy Agent / Archbishop / Priest - Ray Wills
Sheep - Patty Goble
Vanderdendur / Ragotski - Stanford Olsen
Directed by Lonny Price
[Director's Note: "This production is a hybrid; part Hal Prince's original cut down version, part the New York City Opera version, part the Scottish Opera House version, and part a standard concert version. As Candide is satire, the tone we're after...is light comic..."]
Sung in English
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Candide has existed in many versions but is now generally performed with a book by Hugh Wheeler. The primary lyricist was Richard Wilbur. Other contributors to the text were John Latouche, Dorothy Parker, Lillian Hellman, Stephen Sondheim, and Leonard Bernstein. Hershy Kay and John Mauceri contributed orchestrations.
Candide is most famous for its colourful and varied score, many parts of which are very well known, especially the Overture, Cunegonde's song "Glitter And Be Gay", the Old Lady's song "I Am Easily Assimilated", and the Finale "Make Our Garden Grow".
Candide first opened on Broadway as a musical on 1 December 1956. It featured Robert Rounseville as Candide, Barbara Cook as Cunegonde, Max Adrian as Dr. Pangloss, and Irra Petina as the Old Lady. While this production was not a huge success, the music became an almost instant hit in the music world. Some music historians tend to put that down to the fact that New York at the time didn't want very much to do with an operetta pretending to be a musical. Others blame Hellman's overtly political and topical book, which drew parallels between the Inquisition and McCarthyism.
Without Bernstein's involvement, the show underwent a series of Broadway revivals under the direction of Harold Prince, previously known for, among other work, producing the first run of Fiddler on the Roof. 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 lyrics were worked on by the team of artists listed above.
In response to requests from opera companies for a more legitimate version, the show was expanded based on 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 34 performances. Since, opera companies around the world have performed this version. The production continues to be a staple of the City Opera's repertoire.
In 1989, by which point Hellman had died, Bernstein undertook a recording project that expressed his final wishes regarding Candide, incorporating what he thought were the best lyrics from all the contributors (including Hellman) and what he thought were the best portions of music. This recording incorporates a great deal of music and is generally thought to be too long to be produced theatrically.
A recent major production of Candide was directed by Lonny Price in a semi-staged concert production with the New York Philharmonic under Marin Alsop. It ran for four performances, 5-8 May 2004. This production was also broadcast on PBS's Great Performances. This production included the rarely sung duet between Cunegonde and the Old Lady, "We Are Women".
Candide has overcome its initial unenthusiastic reaction and achieved enormous popularity. It is very popular among major music schools as a student show because of its wonderful music and the spectacular opportunities it offers to talented student singers. Its overture is played in concert halls all over the world on a regular basis, and is recognizable to those of a certain age as the theme song to the Dick Cavett show, and still used today to herald Cavett onstage during his talk-show guest-spots. It is widely regarded as representative of Leonard Bernstein's finest theatrical work. Because of its sparkle, wit, breadth of emotion and musical impact, Candide is often cited as one of the best musical works for the stage to come out of the 20th century.
SYNOPSIS
Act One
As the stage narrator explains, the evening's entertainment is based on Voltaire's famed novella and concerns four pupils of the idealistic tutor Dr. Pangloss, who teaches that "all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds." We are in 18th-century Westphalia at the schloss of Baron Thunder-Ten-Tronck, and the children are Cunegonde (the pretty daughter of the Baron), Maximilian (the Baron's son), Paquette (a saucy servant girl), and our wide-eyed hero, Candide (the Baron's bastard nephew).
Candide and Cunegonde fall in love, but once their feelings are discovered, he is banished. Exiled from paradise, with only his optimism to cling to, he is soon railroaded into joining the invading Bulgarian Army. When Candide finally returns to the besieged schloss Thunder-Ten-Tronck, he finds everyone apparently massacred. Thus begin his worldly wanderings.
In Lisbon, he and Dr. Pangloss, who has resurfaced as a syphilitic beggar, face death in the Spanish Inquisition. Then they go on to Paris, where the forlorn lover is reunited with Cunegonde, now the mistress of a wealthy Jew, Don Issachar, and the equally rich Archbishop.
When Candide kills Cunegonde's lovers, the couple must flee. Joined by her companion/chaperone, The Old Lady, they escape to Cádiz, Spain and then to Montevideo in the New World.
Act Two
In Montevideo, South America, the couple is forced to separate again. Cunegonde is taken under the protection of the Governor, who promises to wed her.
Candide, on the run again, finds himself in the jungles of South America, where he is reunited with Paquette and Maximilian. When Candide apparently kills Maximilian, he and Paquette must continue wandering. They are rewarded when they arrive in the wealthy land of Eldorado, where they find enough gold to resume their travels and Candide's quest to locate Cunegonde.
After a stop in Suriname, the pair learns that Cunegonde has been abducted by pirates and taken to Constantinople. They secure a boat from a Dutch merchant, Vanderdendur, and sail for Turkey. In Turkey, Cunegonde and The Old Lady work as slaves in the Gambling Palace of the evil Prince Ragotski. Candide buys their freedom — as well as that of Maximilian (don't ask!). The now-sobered group, sadder but infinitely wiser, resolve to live simply and "Make Our Garden Grow."
THE LYRICS OF A FEW SONGS
Glitter And Be Gay (Cunegonde's Jewel Song)
Glitter and be gay,
That's the part I play;
Here I am in Paris, France,
Forced to bend my soul
To a sordid role,
Victimized by bitter, bitter circumstance.
Alas for me! Had I remained
Beside my lady mother,
My virtue had remained unstained
Until my maiden hand was gained
By some Grand Duke or other.
Ah, 'twas not to be;
Harsh necessity
Brought me to this gilded cage.
Born to higher things,
Here I droop my wings,
Ah! Singing of a sorrow nothing can assuage.
And yet of course I rather like to revel,
Ha ha!
I have no strong objection to champagne,
Ha ha!
My wardrobe is expensive as the devil,
Ha ha!
Perhaps it is ignoble to complain...
Enough, enough
Of being basely tearful!
I'll show my noble stuff
By being bright and cheerful!
Ha ha ha ha ha! Ha!
Pearls and ruby rings...
Ah, how can worldly things
Take the place of honor lost?
Can they compensate
For my fallen state,
Purchased as they were at such an awful cost?
Bracelets... lavalieres
Can they dry my tears?
Can they blind my eyes to shame?
Can the brightest brooch
Shield me from reproach?
Can the purest diamond purify my name?
And yet of course these trinkets are endearing,
Ha ha!
I'm oh, so glad my sapphire is a star,
Ha ha!
I rather like a twenty-carat earring,
Ha ha!
If I'm not pure, at least my jewels are!
Enough! Enough!
I'll take their diamond necklace
And show my noble stuff
By being gay and reckless!
Ha ha ha ha ha! Ha!
Observe how bravely I conceal
The dreadful, dreadful shame I feel.
Ha ha ha ha!
I Am Easily Assimilated (The Old Lady's Song)
I was not born in sunny Hispania,
My father came from Rovno Gubernya.
But now I'm here, I'm dancing a tango;
Di dee di! Dee di dee di!
I am easily assimilated.
I am so easily assimilated.
I never learned a human language.
My father spoke a High Middle Polish.
In one half-hour I'm talking in Spanish:
Por favor! Toreador!
I am easily assimilated.
I am so easily assimilated.
It's easy, it's ever so easy!
I'm Spanish, I'm suddenly Spanish!
And you must be Spanish, too.
Do like the natives do.
These days you have to be
In the majority
Tus labios rubi
Dos rosas que se abren a mi,
Conquistan mi corazon,
Y solo con
Una cancion.
Mis labios rubi
Dreiviertel Takt, mon tres cher ami,
Oui ou, si si ja ja ja, yes yes, da da.
Je ne sais quoi!
Me muero, me sale una hernia!
A long way from Rovno Gubernya!
Mis/Tus labios rubi
Dos rosas que se abren a mi,
Conquistan mi corazon,
Y solo con
Una divina cancion.
De tus labios rubi!
Rubi! Rubi!
Hey!
Make Our Garden Grow (Finale)
You've been a fool
And so have I,
But come and be my wife.
And let us try,
Before we die,
To make some sense of life.
We're neither pure, nor wise, nor good
We'll do the best we know.
We'll build our house and chop our wood
And make our garden grow...
And make our garden grow.
I thought the world
Was sugar cake
For so our master said.
But, now I'll teach
My hands to bake
Our loaf of daily bread.
We're neither pure, nor wise, nor good
We'll do the best we know.
We'll build our house and chop our wood
And make our garden grow...
And make our garden grow.
Let dreamers dream
What worlds they please
Those Edens can't be found.
The sweetest flowers,
The fairest trees
Are grown in solid ground.
We're neither pure, nor wise, nor good
We'll do the best we know.
We'll build our house and chop our wood
And make our garden grow.
And make our garden grow!
