Customer Reviews

Candide (1956 Original Broadway Cast)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Leonard Bernstein's CANDIDE was a Broadway flop when it first opened in 1956 at the Martin Beck Theatre, shuttering after an abysmal 73 performances. Though the show has never quite achieved the greatness it deserves, the Overture is considered to be one of the greatest, most thrilling ever written. The original 1956 cast album of the show has now been reissued on the Columbia Broadway Masterworks label.

Based on the play by Voltaire, the show starred Robert Rounseville ('Mr Snow' in the film version of CAROUSEL) as Candide, with Irra Petina as the Old Woman with One Buttock and Max Adrian as Dr Pangloss. Barbara Cook (the City Center revival of CAROUSEL, PLAIN AND FANCY) stars as the young ingenue Cunegonde.

The score, by Leonard Bernstein by lyrics by Richard Wilbur, John LaTouche and Dorothy Parker, is superb. The musical is best known for the devilish 'jewel song' aria "Glitter and Be Gay", sung by the clarion soprano of Barbara Cook, who infuses it with all the vocal pyrotechnics that it calls for."I Am Easily-Assimilated" is comically performed by Irra Petina, whilst the baritone of Robert Rounseville is showcased in "It Must Be So".

As a bonus on this new reissue, there is the majestic sweeping Overture as performed by the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Leonard Bernstein himself. There are also brand-new liner notes including an essay from Barbara Cook.

As well as this landmark recording, I also recommend the 1997 Broadway revival cast album (which features Harolyn Blackwell as Cunegonde and Jim Dale as Dr Pangloss). Buy them both today!

Someday, a genius producer will make this show work, probably as a film instead of a staged production. Until then, we must bask in the fabulous music, the best of which, perfectly sung, remains on this all-too-abbreviated original cast recording. Ideally, this recording should be supplemented by Bernstein's 1989 recording of a complete score. The two together represent youth and age, sadly.

All the tinkering and updating went for naught when you compare the original "Best of all possible worlds" words with later versions. Candide was a child of the 18th century and 1950s and should remain so.

I currently own two recordings of Candide, this one and the 1997 revival. It is hard to say which one is better; however it is easy to say this one is more important. This is the original. Many have come after it (including a revised version by Bernstein himself) but this is the basis for them all. Each revision is different in some way, so you really should own this one to know the true Candide. In circles of major Broadway fans this recording is considered the definitive way to sing "Glitter and Be Gay" and I must say it is really quite amazing. Candide leans heavily into the styling's of operetta so some west side story fans may be surprised with what they hear, but it is still beautiful music. So why even consider another recording? The 1997 recording has almost the full orchestrations and they sound glorious. Some reworking of libretto and plot may not be, but hearing the magnificent composition of Bernstein is well worth the investment. Bottom line: If you can only get one, this is the one to get. Favorite song: "It Must Be So"

I grew up with this recording of Leonard Bernstein's "Candide," and spent literally decades trying to work out all the lyrics. They're sung so fast and often in combination in a kind of fugue, that working them out has been tricky. But the effort is well rewarded. Original credit for the lyrics goes to the American poet Richard Wylbur while credit for additional lyrics goes to Dorothy Parker ("Oh life is a glorious cycle of song/A medley of extemporanea/And love is a thing that can never go wrong/And I am Marie, of Rumania."). You could hardly ask for better writers.

So you can imagine my surprise when I rented a concert version of "Candide" from Netflix, only to discover that many of the wittiest lyrics had not only been changed, but in some cases completely replaced, and replaced by lyrics that eliminated the wit altogether. Gone, for example, are the following lyrics from "Best of All Possible Worlds":

Cunegonde:
Dear master, I am sure you're right
That married life is splendid,
But why do married people fight?
I cannot comprehend it.

Pangloss:
The private strife of man and wife
Is useful to the nation.
It is a harmless outlet for
Emotions that could lead to war
Or social agitation.

Chorus:
A brilliant explanation.

. . .

Candide:

Since marriage if divine, of course,
We cannot understand sir,
Why there should be so much divorce,
Do let us know the answer.

Pangloss:
Why, marriage, boy, is such a joy,
So lovely a condition,
That many ask no other than
To wed as often as they can
In happy repetition.

Chorus:
A brilliant exposition.

And so on. In the concert version, these lyrics on "social agitation" and hypocrisy in general are gone, replaced by lyrics such as:

(On discussing biology)
Pangloss:
Camels.

Cunegonde:
Camels are mammals.

Boring and insipid. I suspect Stephen Sondheim bears no small amount of blame in the bastardizing of the original lyrics, but by the time you get to the revisions of the nineties, so much has been lost that it's heartbreaking. If you're a Bernstein fan at all, listen to this version first.

So what makes Candide so brilliant? Well, of course, first there's the music. Fans of "West Side Story" will be surprised by the difference in style, although several of the songs echo "West Side Story." Candide's lament "It Must Be So," as well as his song, "El Dorado," and the finale "Make Our Garden Grow" all echo the finale "There's a Place for Us," from "West Side Story." But in Candide the musicality has moved up to a whole new level. This is Bernstein at his best. Some of the songs consist of fugues, in which songs by different characters and with apparently different melodies are sung together and produce an astonishing harmony. The entire "Bon Voyage" sequence is an example, of which one of my favorite verses is:

Chorus (on discovering that Candide's ship is sinking):
Bon voyage, good gracious,
Seems to have been a bit of sabotage.
Things don't look propitious,
Still from the heart we wish you bon voyage!

Rhyming "good gracious" with "propitious"? And "sabotage" with "bon voyage"? These are sophisticated lyrics indeed. And, amazingly enough, no one seems to have messed about with them in all these years.

Later versions of the show contain more songs, many of them, frankly, not particularly interesting, as in the labored "What a day for an auto da fe."

The highlight of the show is Cunegonde's four-plus-minute aria "Glitter and Be Gay," probably the toughest coloratura aria ever written. In the delightful new liner notes, Barbara Cook, who played the original Cunegonde, recounts a moment before the opening night's first act in which Bernstein stopped by her dressing room to wish her luck, adding "By the way, Callas is out front tonight," referring to the world-famous Maria Callas. Barbara Cook said, "Thank you very much. That's just what I needed to know." Bernstein replied, "Forget it. She'd kill for your high e-flats." And so Barbara Cook sailed into musical history with an aria that includes lines like:

Glitter and be gay,
That's the part I play.
Here I am in Paris, France.
Born to higher things,
Here I drop my wings,
Victimized by bitter,
Bitter circumstance.
...
Can the brightest broach
Shield me from reproach?
Can the purest diamond
Purify my name?

And yet, of course, these trinkets are endearing,
Ha-ha!
I'm awful glad my sapphire is a star,
Ha-ha,
I rather like these twenty-carat earrings,
Ha-ha,
If I'm not pure, at least my jewels are!
...
Enough, enough,
I'll take that diamond necklace.
And show my noble stuff,
By being gay and reckless...

And then into a long series of "Ha"s with aspirated h's which were unusually difficult because as Cook explains, Bernstein wanted to hear "Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha" instead of the more traditional "Ah-ah-ah, etc." The problem is, in singing those "Ha"s, the singer is losing breath with every syllable. Cook makes it seem easy.

So maybe it's best to consider this original Broadway cast recording as simply the best of "Candide," after hearing which, you may go on to the numerous revisions, none of which matches the original.

And now, having spent time writing about it, I guess it's time to go listen to it again. I have, over decades, listened to "Candide" hundreds of times, and it is always as fresh and new as the first time. On that opening night, Cook relates, the overture itself stopped the show. Shakespeare's description of Cleopatra applies equally to "Candide": "Age cannot wither nor custom stale her infinite variety."

After more than half a century, the original cast album of "Candide" still glitters, so to speak. Although this production flopped on Broadway, this album has become a cult classic, primarily due to Barbara Cook's clear, sweet, and warm soprano, a "sui generis" voice, unlike the many generic Broadway sopranos of today.

Although this is not my favorite "Candide" overall, the style of some of the performances being a little stilted, Cook is certainly my favorite Cunegonde.

Today marks the anniversary of the premier of Candide, the original cast recording of which I just happen to have listened to for the first time earlier this week. The original Broadway production was a flop, but it has become regarded as something of a minor classic and perhaps Leonard Bernstein's masterpiece, largely thanks to that album. The book by Lillian Hellman can't have helped, and apparently didn't. Critic Walter Kerr wrote, "Three of the most talented people our theatre possesses---Lillian Hellman, Leonard Bernstein, Tyrone Guthrie---have joined hands to transform Voltaire's Candide into a really spectacular disaster." (He ought to know, as his own Broadway musical Goldilocks suffered from similar problems with the book, despite a brilliant musical score composed by Leroy Anderson.)

Bernstein's overture is frenetic, almost bombastic, which I suppose is appropriate to the material, but doesn't make for the most pleasant listening. But several of the songs are good, such as the brilliant "Glitter and be Gay", the hilarious "I'm Easily Assimilated", and the clever "Bon Voyage" and "What's the Use?" Even some of the songs that didn't make much impression on the first listen have become hard to get out of my head after a second. It's too bad the cast didn't have better material to work with, because they were very good---especially Barbara Cook as Cunegonde, who was gorgeous, as was her voice.

Three and a half stars...but since amazon doesn't allow halves, I'm rounding up to four. :)

This is an American Classic...fantastic score performed by the original cast. Can't be beat! Should be in the collection of everyone who enjoys American musical theatre - and opera.

An uneven disk. Some parts are very good, but much of the story line is absent and the tension expected between the fuzzy headed romantic thoughts of some characters and the devious real world does not happen. It seems diluted and while better than the Soundheim stuff of later years is still not at the level expected for this work.

Wonderful, though I prefer the rich maturity of Barbara Cook's voice now to the beauty and purity of it in her youth.

This is what it is, as they say. Not the greatest version of Candide, but it's a faithful rendition of the 1956 production. I gave it as a gift to a friend, who was very happy with it.