Minnesota Orchestra Tours Japan: Bernstein's Candide Overture

Bernstein's Candide Overture Listen in RealAudio Performed by Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra 1983; CD 413 324-2 Minnesota Orchestra Tours Japan Home
Program Notes by Mary Ann Feldman Leonard Bernstein Born August 25, 1918, Lawrence, Massachusetts; died October 14, 1990, New York City Overture to Candide In Candide, his stinging satire of 1759, Voltaire objected to the philosophical optimism propounded by Emanuel Leibniz--namely that this is the best of all possible worlds. Inspired by the terrible Lisbon earthquake in which thousands perished, the Frenchman's hilarious inquiry into the problem of evil was burned in the streets and put on the Vatican Index, thereby becoming a bestseller in a wink. Nearly 200 years later, Leonard Bernstein and Lillian Hellman collaborated to produce a musical Candide which narrowed the gap between Broadway and the operatic stage. After try-outs in Boston and New Haven, this thoroughly American Candide opened at the Martin Beck Theater in New York on December 1, 1956. Those lucky to be present that night--and, as a Columbia University student, I was among them--rankled at the next day's mixed reviews. Bernstein had created a genuine successor to the scintillating comic operas of the past, only to have his show rebuffed by the press. Surviving just 73 performances, the original Candide was put on the shelf, and Bernstein noted in his diary in February 1957: "Candide is on and gone; the Philharmonic has been conducted [referring to the New York Philharmonic, which would appoint him its first American-born conductor in 1958]; back to Romeo"--referring to his latest preoccupation, West Side Story. Meanwhile, the tuneful music was catching on, and the ebullient Overture made steady gains in the orchestral repertory. Bernstein's invention was already at its freshest, and its wittiest, in the bracing Overture, into which several of the work's most engaging numbers are compacted, whetting the appetite for the whole score. Although the musical was out of sight, it was on the minds of many creative people, although not that of the busy composer/conductor. Eventually there were so many re-workings of the original that his publishing firm found itself storing nineteen crates of Candide materials. A lengthy chronicle of performances--including a concert presentation by this Orchestra in 1962--antedates its rebirth as the re-expanded, two-act "opera house" Candide showcased by the New York City Opera in 1982 under John Mauceri. But the NYCO production did not mark the end of its odyssey: determined to restore the integrity of the original, and with Bernstein on hand to look over his shoulder, Mauceri examined the cache of Candide sources and undertook yet a new version, with additional orchestrations. Produced by the Scottish Opera in 1988, this version served as the basis of the Candide presented here under David Zinman at the 1993 Sommerfest. Identified as The Concert Version, Mauceri's reincarnation of the original Candide was sanctioned by the composer.