INTELLIGENCE & ACCESSIBILITY
Bernstein’s ‘Candide’ has endured multiple incarnations since its 1956 opening
“Candide” is a silly romp through the trials of Job.
Dr. Pangloss has taught the optimistic Candide and his fiancée, Cunegonde, that “Everything’s for the best in this best of all possible worlds.”
The real world seems determined to prove otherwise, with war, separations, the Spanish Inquisition, earthquakes, volcanoes, prostitution, poverty and death assaulting the couple everywhere they go.
The Santa Fe Opera’s 2018 season will open with Leonard Bernstein’s fusion of comedy and philosophy on Friday, June 29, in honor of what would have been the composer’s 100th birthday.
Bernstein based his operetta on Voltaire’s 1759 satirical novella.
A constellation of writers, including Lillian Hellman, Stephen Sondheim and Dorothy Parker, worked on the libretto. Bernstein infused the work with so many traditional dances (threading the gavotte with the polka and the waltz) and folk songs that some call “Candide” his “Valentine to Europe.”
Hellman approached Bernstein with the concept in 1953. The pair exulted in the parallels between Voltaire’s satirical portrayal of the Catholic Church’s blatant hypocrisy and violence with the Inquisition-like tactics then being imposed by the House of Representatives’ House Un-American Activities Committee and Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
Voltaire charged 1750s society with puritanical snobbery, phony moralizing and inquisitional attacks on the individual. All these accusations rang true for Bernstein and Hellman in the 1950s. The piece may be the most labored over Broadway show in history, enduring multiple incarnations since its 1956 opening.
Whatever disaster befalls Candide, he shrugs it off as meant to be.
“It’s easy to call him dumb,” said lyric tenor Alek Shrader, who plays Candide. “But I think he was the most gullible man in the world. He’s an optimist. If something (bad) happens, it’s always for the best, so anything that happens is predestined.”
Soprano Brenda Rae will return to Santa Fe as Cunegonde after singing the lead in 2017’s “Lucia di Lammermoor.”
“I’m an aristocrat, and Candide is not, even though he’s been brought up by my family,” she said.
The pair agree to marry.
“That’s a conflict; they kick him out and send him on his travels,” she added.
At one point, Candide thinks Cunegonde is dead. She isn’t; one of several improbable resurrections in the libretto.
“That’s the thing about this opera; people die, but they’re not really dead,” Rae said. “It’s so bizarre.”
Rae will sing the soprano showpiece “Glitter and Be Gay,” a song immortalized by everyone from Madeline Kahn and Kristen Chenoweth to Natalie Dessay, Renée Fleming and Roberta Peters.
“It’s a show-stopper,” she said, “It’s as hard an aria as ‘Lucia.’”
Rae and the rest of the cast will emerge from the pages of Voltaire’s book, clad in paper period 18th-century dress.
With “Candide,” Bernstein connects the space between opera and the musical.
“It kind of bridges the gap,” Rae said. “It’s intelligent music with the accessibility. It’s not just simple music; it’s got some meat to it.”
After all the emotional and physical battering, Candide finally opens his eyes.
“At the end, he finally has his first original thought,” Shrader said. “He thinks maybe for once in his life he must think for himself.”