‘Candide’ Shows Its Age

One of Beverly Sills’s landmark achievements as general director of New York City Opera was the company’s 1982 production of Leonard Bernstein’s “Candide.” It wasn’t that Harold Prince’s production was particularly outstanding, though it was well received. Rather, the achievement was that it marked the first staging of this famously problematic work, originally seen on Broadway in 1956, that presented Bernstein’s score in a reasonably full version and that won critical and popular acclaim. This was “Candide” vindicated.Its return to the New York State Theater on Tuesday evening found Bernstein’s ebulliently clever musical numbers delightfully served by an able cast led by George Manahan. Bernstein’s score was always the reason people worked so hard to find a context in which it could shine, even going so far as to chuck Lillian Hellman’s original book. That was the strategy behind the successful but abbreviated 1973 Chelsea Theater production, also by Mr. Prince, with a new book by Hugh Wheeler. It served as the basis for City Opera’s production, with several numbers lovingly restored by the conductor John Mauceri (who also conducted in 1973).At the time, this seemed like the best of all possible “Candide”s. But no performing text for “Candide” will ever be frozen in time. A 1988 production by the Scottish National Opera, again led by Mauceri, returned to Hellman’s sequence of scenes. Bernstein conducted that version in a 1989 London concert performance, which became known as the “final revised edition.” But revisions continue, spurred on by the fact that all the principal revisions during Bernstein’s lifetime, however disparate, had his involvement and blessing. Robert Carsen’s 2006 production for Paris and Milan had still another new book. Its digs at contemporary America, though controversial, have some foundation in the work. The autoda-fe scene in Act I was an attack on McCarthyism, of which Hellman and Bernstein were targets. But Mr. Prince’s production now seems of another time. It is zippy but lacks a contemporary edge. Clarke Dunham’s gaudy, cutout-style sets, with their circus wagon motif, look dated. Judith Dolan’s costumes, though fanciful enough for the principals, have the chorus sometimes looking as if they had stepped out of a production of “Oklahoma!” The Wheeler book, too, is nothing special. The best thing about it is the way it sets up the musical numbers. Patricia Birch’s choreography has some good moments, especially the waltz number in which the dancers are seen in outline throwing around life-size dolls.“Candide,” though, is a piece that rewards repeated listening. One has to get used to its episodic structure and lack of any kind of arching plot. The modus operandi, extrapolated from Voltaire’s novel, is simply to contrast 18th-century optimism with untold disasters experienced in the Old and New Worlds — war, rape, the Lisbon earthquake, pirate attacks, human treachery, you name it — which the characters endure with remarkable good cheer. And there is always something new to find in the music, especially the lesser-known numbers. “What’s the Use?” for instance, comes off as a brilliant parody of Offenbach.Most of the principals made debuts, and successful ones. Both tenor Daniel Reichard, as Candide, and soprano Lauren Worsham, as his sweetheart Cunégonde, have light but attractive voices and sang with good diction. I was less impressed with the Broadway actor Richard Kind, as Voltaire and Dr. Pangloss, especially when he was called upon to sing. It’s a pity that the production doesn’t have a real tenor for “Bon Voyage,” like Stanford Olsen in the New York Philharmonic’s 2004 performance. Soprano Jessica Wright was alluring as the sexually irresistible servant girl Paquette. Among company regulars, Kyle Pfortmiller sang with a fine, robust baritone as Maximilian, and Judith Blazer brought a strong, Russian-accented mezzo to the role of the Old Lady, making a mark in “I Am Easily Assimilated.” Amplification seemed well judged. This revival, the company’s fifth since the production was new, has its rewards, but it’s time the City Opera gave “Candide” a new face.Until April 20 (Lincoln Center, 212-721-6500).

‘Candide’ Shows Its Age

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