Product Details

• Actors: Jerry Hadley, June Anderson, Adolph Green, Christa Ludwig, Nicolai Gedda
• Directors: Leonard Bernstein
• Format: Classical, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Polygram Video
• VHS Release Date: October 11, 1991
• Run Time: 147 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302217822
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #263,084 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars This "opera house" version from the Eighties is dramatically inert and musically patchy, December 28, 2008

By 

Santa Fe Listener (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Bernstein: Candide / Mauceri, Eisler, Mills, Lankston (Audio CD)

Amazon has created a muddle by listing reviews of a VHS concert performance under what is obviously the well-known New York City Opera audio recording of "Candide." The composer held out for twenty years after the failure of Tyrone Guthrie's original staging on Broadway in 1956, denying all preformance rights until drastic revisions could be made to the flawed book by Lillian Hellman. Sadly, when he gave in, the revision by Hal Prince and Stephen Sondheim was a dismal betrayal -- Voltaire's biting satire was ditched in favor of doltish clowning, Candide and Cunegonde being transformed into faux-naive children with straw for brains.

In the mid-Eighties that version was subsumbed into an official "opera house" version that was soon to fade from sight. Some of the show's original intent was preserved, and most of Bernstein's incomparable score was intact, more or less. Alas, the cobbling together of styles left the audience confused. Was this supposed to be satire, mock-operetta, farce, or an olla podrida of disconnected vocal numbers? To my ears, it's the last, a shapeless mass that's at best a make-do until we get -- when, oh, when? -- a satisfactory revamping.

As for the performance, you'll hear lots of reorchestration that was later jettisoned in favor of the much-better original. Lyrics are randomly tacked on to melodies -- some of these remained, others were ditched. But the overall problem is John Mauceri's bloodless conducting and the cautious, utterly inert singing. None of the principals are worth criticizing since they are all such blanks.

In short, this is a Candide for completists only, one of a long line of bastardized versions that litter the trail of a hapless musical struggling to fulfill its musical potential. Note, too, that all dialogue has been excised, which makes the proceedings twice as confusing.

12 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not a theatrical release..., January 8, 2004

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bernstein: Candide [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I am a big fan of this work and purchased the video in the hopes that it would be a theatrical presentation. To my extreme disappointment, it is basically a filmed concert with narration, and is not a complete performance of the work. It seems that much of the dialog is only replaced by narration. As a collection piece it may be well worth the money asked, but as a visual entertainment I suspect your money would be better spent on actual seats to a live, local symphony concert. Not only will you be entertained, but will be contributing to your local arts.
As an audio entertainment this tape is very good. However, there are many recordings available that are also delightful, and in some cases substantially lest costly. I have enjoyed the 1956 Broadway recording and the 1982 New York City Opera recording (both on CD), as well as the 1974 Broadway revival (sadly, only available on LP, but includes the entire dialog). If you are interested in audio and looking for operatic style go with the NYC Opera recording. For complete work, it looks like the 1974 Broadway revival is the only option.

11 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars By Far the best recording of Candide, May 3, 2000

By 

Carl A Jacobson (Manchester, NH United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bernstein: Candide / Mauceri, Eisler, Mills, Lankston (Audio CD)

I've heard a number of recordings of this, Bernstein's often overlooked masterpiece, and I must say this recording has the finest performance.