Some overtures survive the operas they were written for. Candide calls to mind that sparkling curtain-opener that is now so popular with symphony orchestras all over the world. However, the finely crafted overture only scratches the surface of the brilliant operatta it draws its themes from.

Candide, or "Optimism" is based on Voltaire's 1759 novelette which to many is the greatest satire ever written. It ridicules the philosophy of Leibniz, whose ideas Alexader Pope lyricised in his writing. If there is an all-powerful, morally perfect Creator, then he must be a good Creator, and the Greatest of All Possible Creators. It follows then that the world having been created by this perfect Creator, must be the Best of All Possible Worlds. In Pope's words "Whatever is, is right", or if you want to look at it in another way, "There is a sweetness in every woe".

One day in 1755, a terrible earthquake erupted in Lisbon (Portugal) and countless people were left dead. If Leibniz was right, what good could God be planning to have millions haphazardly drowned, crushed and burned alive? This provoked Voltaire to put his naive hero, aptly named Candide, through a series of life's most horrifying tribulations and yet coming out of it all still trying to believe in what his Dr. Pangloss thought him, that "everything is, is right and good in this best of all possible worlds".

The point of this cool philosophy lesson and the operetta? An acute self-recognition and realisation of how the world is and how we go about perceiving it. The best part of this is of course all the great music that is accompanying it.

The Story. Now in a few words, I shall attempt to sum up the plot. While the audience who attends a comic operatta expects a joyful night of singing and dancing, they are going to experience war, famine, murder, petty and grand larceny ... and even a small amount of rape. Born in the casttle of Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh in the remote and backward land of Westphalia (sexual innuendos intended), Candide is educated is inoculated with the belief in the pre-ordained harmony of things which can only result in the general good. There, he also meets and falls in love with the Baron's pretty daughter Cunegonde.

The pre-ordained result of this being his being kicked (literally) out of the castle and pressed into the services of the Bulgarian army, which in a unhappy coincidence is planning to invade Westphalia. The castle is overrun, the baron chopped to pieces and Cunegonde raped repeatedly before she is bayoneted to death.

Candide laments the loss of his love but optimistically gets on with his life. He arrives in Holland only to find his dear old teacher (who was supposed to have been killed) headless, noseless, earless and nothing left but his optimism and veneral disease. Thus begins Candide's journey round the world to Paris, Beunos Aires, Venice, Paraguay and the New World; along the way every member of the cast gets killed in some violent way and somehow resurrected. Our hero gets whipped, stripped, almost hanged kills a few people accidentally but always remains Candide. At the end of it all that torment, they find themselves happily cultivating a garden, concluding that this happiness they have found could not have come to be if not for all the trials they went through.

Talk about optimism. Having been unsuccessful in doing justice to Voltaire's ingenius plot and witty constructions, I hope to have at least emphasised what makes this story so interesting. Sex, violence, international locations, quirky characters, a generous dash of wit and humour, and most importantly, a stab at the human consciouness that finds relevance over 300 years later at this turn of millenium.

Right: Max Adrian (Pangloss), Barbara Cook (Cunegonde) and Robert Rounseville (Candide) in a scene from the show. Picture from The Official Leonard Bernstein Site

Playwright Lillian Hellman, who wrote the book, and composer Leonard Bernstein saw in this a reflection of 1950s America, which we now recall as the period of "McCarthyism". A dark period of serious inquisition by the House of Un-American Activities", and the time of the Hollywood blacklist - "television censorship, lost jobs, suicides, expatriation and the denial of passports to anyone been suspected of having once known a suspected Communist."

Hellman and Bernstein were both implicated, Bernstein was himself denied a passport by his government (incidentally so was Voltaire). Candide was therefore their reaction to McCarthyism, to ridicule and satirise the issue - and to spark off discussion and debate. Succeed they did, considering the kind of controversy that was stirred up by the political implications of a work created by artistic icons of the American public. When Candide flopped, Hellman bore the brunt of the criticism, accused of doing little justice to Voltaire and only succeeding in fueling her own desire to lash at the authorities. While Lenny and collaborator Stephen Sondheim stood by Hellman's book, Candide closed after 73 performances, a flop by Broadway standards which rates the quality of a show by its box-office success.

Candide was probably too sophisticated for the audience of the day. In retrospect, that is true since it has now joined the ranks of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess and Kurt Weill's Street Scene as true American operas that belong to The Met. Before that though, it went through rewrite after rewrite largely through the hands of John Mauceri with the blessings of (but without the assistance) of the composer, in an uncanny parallel of the histories of other great operas like Bizet's Carmen and Verdi's La Traviata.

Many felt that Hellman's book and Lenny's music was incompatible. Hellman's book was dark and poignant, while Bernstein captured the wit and the satirical charm of Voltaire's original. Eventually, Hellman's book was replaced by that by Hugh Wheeler and with the dedication of Mauceri, Sondheim and director Harold Prince the work met with some success which led to more revivals. It was only in the late 1980s that Lenny himself joined in to restore more "Voltaire" into the Wheeler text (Wheeler passed away before he could start on it, and John Wells was engaged).

Lenny was able to restore Candide to what was consistent with his original vision, giving it the musical contiguity that was lacking in previous versions. Together, with a tightened script and staging, this final version was presented by the Scottish Opera in 1988, and recorded on what was to become the "definitive" version of Candide with Lenny himself leading a talented cast consisting of Jerry Hadley, June Anderson and Christa Ludwig. This recording was hailed as "Bernstein's last miracle" and snared a Grammy and a Gramophone award.

The rich literary backgroud and colourful history aside, one would be captivated by the colour, and the charm of the opera on listening alone. The potpurri of lyrics contributed by Richard Wilbur, Bernstein, Hellman, Sondheim, La Touche, et al fit the tunes as if the music was written for the words. The sharp, caustic wit and sometimes hilarious situations make this work as entertaining as it gets.

At the centre of all this, Bernstein's score shines with fresh invention at every turn, and exudes an unsurpassable amount of energy and charm. The lyrical and sadly moving Candide's lament, at the times when he paused to reconsider his lot and reaffirm his faith in optimism is a stroke of genius revealing a humanity that touches us all. On the opposite end of the spectrum is Cunegonde's "Glitter and be Gay", a portrayal of her lost pride in a joyful self-deceiving ditty singing of how "if I'm not pure, at least my jewels are!". From the cynical old woman comes a sardonic tango number "I am easily assimilated" to the irony of "You were dead, you know", Lenny demonstrates his large spectrum of styles (local as well, when Candide travels to different countries) and yet, capturing the quintessence of the satire. In a way, that is truly Voltaire.

What Lenny wanted was to write an American opera that could touch a nerve in the American people. This was something he would succeed in doing with West Side Story, with its dramatic potency and Romanticism. With Candide, Lenny showed one side of himself: intelligent, highly literate, sensitive, sharp and flamboyant. With this exceedingly talented team, he gave his craft to create this gem of an opera that mattered in its own time, and will matter in time to come. In the true spirit of the piece, it may not be the best of all possible operattas, but it is darn good.

Arias & Barcarolles: The Leonard Bernstein Pages

Adrian Tan is a philosophy student, but he's really better off doing other things than pondering Universal Good.

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