Customer Reviews

Leonard Bernstein's Candide (Great Performances)

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is a splendid performance of Candide. But before you go any further, you should realise that this is a concert performance, not a full scale operatic staging of the work. That said, the singing is glorious and the acting, despite this being a concert performance is outstanding. It is driven to milk all the comic elements out of the play. It all works delightfully. It is so brimful of joie de vivre, it leaves you smiling and humming all day. I must disagree with a previous reviewer who said, Bernstein wouldn't be amused. This is precisely what he would have wanted to achieve.

Sir Thomas Allen is superb as Dr. Pangloss who doubles as the narrator of the concert. Paul Groves and Patti LuPone are both excellent. But the star of this Candide is surely the lovely Kristin Chenoweth as Cunegonde, who in addition to having a magnificient voice shows that she is a natural comedienne and actress. This recording of Candide immediately goes to the top of the list. Now, if only we could have Bernstein's own production of Candide recorded live at the Barbican Theatre in London. That recording under the Deutsche Grammophon label is yet to appear on DVD.

I should comment on the camerawork which received criticism from a previous reviewer. It is a mark of the electric quality of this bravura performance that most viewers don't even notice the occasionally almost amateurish shakiness of the camera. The cameraman was shaky at times and faces occasionally went in and out of focus but a large part of what I initially attributed to poor camerawork was in fact artificially introduced motion artifacts. This is a problem with the DVD encoding and not the camera. These cause apparent jumps in the picture. But this is present only in DVD players with low end video processors. Switching to a better DVD player or processor solves the problem.

The DVD by Image Entertainment is in 1.78:1 widescreen (anamorphic enhancement). Picture quality is very good, clear, sharp and with rich natural colors. The picture is flawless provided you play it on a good DVD player. It comes with 3 audio tracks, DTS 5.1, Dolby Surround 5.1 and Dolby Stereo. Excellent immersive sound. It would have been good if they had included an uncompressed PCM track as well but I suppose that's asking a bit much. All in all, an outstanding concert and one to be forever treasured.


Technical note: As noted above I noticed a strange problem with this particular DVD. It seems to play quite flawlessly on certain systems, yet throw up irritating problems on others. On one set-up I noticed numerous motion artifacts and lots of combing issues. Motion appears jerky and horizontal scan lines appear whenever fast movements occur or rapid scene changes take place. I'm not quite sure why they should be there but I attibute it to faulty encoding or improper flagging. No other DVD exhibits these errors on this particular system. I believe what one of the previous reviewers complained about could be due to this. The problem goes away when switching to an alternate system with a better deinterlacer / video processor. However that does not absolve Image Entertainment from responsibility for producing a sub-standard DVD which requires high end equipment to compensate for its deficiencies.

P.S. Bernstein's Candide can be interpreted in many ways. Some approach it as serious opera, others as light operetta, still others as a Broadway musical or even farce. Liking or disliking a particular production is very subjective. If you adhere to Bernstein's final vision of this work, enshrined in his by now legendary Barbican performance (Final, revised edition, first premiered 1988 by Scottish Opera and later performed with the LSO at the Barbican in 1989 with high powered opera stars singing all the roles), then you will tend to view this more as Opera and consequently your attitude to any performance that detracts from that operatic image (like this one) will be very negative. But you must remember that for many years, and for most Americans, Candide was considered a Broadway musical and at most a comic operetta. The two contrasting visions are equally valid and are a testament to Bernstein's genius and Candide's status as a true masterpiece.

Based on the wickedly funny satire by Voltaire, CANDIDE was originally produced on Broadway in 1956. The Leonard Bernstein score was greatly admired, as were the lyrics from an unexpected combination of Richard Wilbur, John Latouche, and Dorothy Parker. Sadly, the script by Lillian Hellman and the production as a whole proved hamfisted, to say the least, and in spite of a legendary performance by Barbara Cook the show closed after a mere seventy three performances.

On-going admiration made the original cast album a favorite in theatre circles, and over the years there have been numerous attempts to revive CANDIDE--but each attempt proved problematic at best. Even when Hellman's script was discarded, the show simply proved impossible to stage... until 2004, when director Lonny Price staged the piece for a limited engagement at Lincoln Center.

Like most post-1956 directors, Price largely discarded the Hellman script. He also went quite a bit further: he makes no effort to "stage" CANDIDE in a traditional style. Placing no less than the New York Philharmonic and Westminister Symphonic Choir in the middle of the stage, using a minimum of props and even fewer costumes, Price has his actors romp through the orchestra and play directly and pointedly to the audience--and the result is theatre at its most theatrical and most uniquely powerful.

The cast is superior. Paul Groves and Kristin Chenoweth offer memorable vocals in the leading roles of Candide and his lady love Cunegonde, and while Chenoweth doesn't manage to best Barbara Cook's memorable performance she at least equals it; in her hands the famous "Glitter and be Gay" proves as comic as it is beautiful. Sir Thomas Allen provides tremendous stability in multiple roles, including the misguided Dr. Pangloss. Patti LuPone is somewhat less effective; although she performs both script and score with the remarkable vocal skills and tremendous aplomb for which she is so famous, she seems faintly miscast as The Old Lady. Even so, this indeed Patti LuPone in full stride, and that compensates for a great deal.

Like most theatre-to-film projects, CANDIDE has the occasional photography problem, but over all film director Fritz Zeilinger captures the excitement of this memorable live performance without major gaffes. If you are a fan of the score who has never seen the play in performance--well, as Dr. Pangloss might say, this is indeed the best of all possible productions. Greatly recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

If you missed this performance on PBS, be sure to snag a copy of this DVD. This is a brisk, snappy, offbeat, and joyous version of a production that is notoriously difficult to pull off. Kristen Chenoweth's performance (in the role of Cunegonde) alone makes this a must-have. Brilliant!

Lonny Price has, by and large, directed an extraordinary event and captured it on video for all of us to enjoy. I felt that I truly had an orchestra seat at an excellent performance - stage-to-video doesn't get much better than that.

Hearing Bernstein's score played by this huge marvelous orchestra and sung by a cast/chorus that has the right balance of excellent voices AND the exuberance necessary for "musical theatre" is a treat.

Price has used the very limited staging opportunities of Avery Fisher Hall to bring fun and life to a staged concert. It reinforces that usually, simplicity is the best choice if the material is solid.

The use of chorus-as-card-section is great fun. His casting is great fun - Paul Groves in lederhosen is always a believable innocent Candide. Who'd have guessed that bald, bespectacled Jeff Blumenkrantz is perfect as the narcissistic Maximillian. Sir Thomas Allen as Pangloss: nothing short of brilliant. And clearly conductor Marin Alsop and the orchestra are having great fun as well.

What I don't understand is why Price allowed the staging and the actors to drift into "cute" and "indulgent" at various points in the production.

Cute: at one of the most touching points of the story - when Candide begins his journey into the world - with nothing but optimism to sustain him - Price screws it up. Competing with Paul Groves sensitive and beautiful performance of "It Must Be So," is the cheap gimmick of the chorus passing Candide's beloved possessions down the row and into his roll-on bag .... A baseball glove, a Frisbee, and a cherished West Side Story album (huge laughs from Bernstein fans long before we know what they're laughing at) then the thump thump thump as the roller bag goes down stairs. The audience laughs. It's cute. It's insy-poo ..... but the staging doesn't help the story. Indeed the staging is clashing with the moment. This is a moment for simplicity - not a movement onstage, just a pin spot on Candide alone in the world- not a moment to be blown off with "cute."

Indulgent: OK, I'm not a huge fan of Chenoweth. She's lovely, she has a great instrument .... But there is a bulletproof shield around her that not even that voice can shatter. She never allows us to sympathize with Cunegonde and so we really don't care much about her travails. Chenoweth's Glitter and Be Gay is a series of disjointed "bits" - OK, so Chenoweth can sing the notes - so what if she fails to tell a story, to develop her character, or to be anything other than ... well Ms. Chenoweth onstage doing some schtick that had nothing to do with the rest of the play? It isn't clear to me whether Price didn't or couldn't direct Chenoweth - whichever, it was incredibly disappointing. For this 6 minutes, I wanted so desperately to see young Barbara Cook onstage ... BEING Cunegonde.

If anyone even bothers to read this, BUY THE DVD NOW!!! It is, overall a great production, you'll have a grand time. My disappointment is that with half a dozen relatively minor fixes - removing the cute and the indulgent - this would have been an excellent production.

The frenetic and inappropriate staging of this concert ruined an otherwise mostly good to great presentation of Leonard Bernstein's score for me. What happened to the director since the concert version of "Sweeney Todd"? That concert was great, but here the cheap gimmicks/visual jokes employed throughout constantly got in the way of the music.

The director apparently thought that staging "Candide" a la "A funny thing happened on the way to the forum" would be a great idea, but compared to "Forum" the book for "Candide" by Hugh Wheeler is much too cynical and just not funny enough to warrant such a decision. There's a vast difference between a Voltarian satire and a TV sitcom, which is why the topical updates will date this DVD rather quickly ( I doubt that anyone will want to watch it 10 years from today!).

Examples of the director screwing up scenes: A drag show accompanying the "Paris Waltz" (this is Paris in the 18th century, not "La cage aux folles" in the 1970's). The great duet " We are women", one of the highlights in the score, is interrupted by silly spoken references to baseball and soccer and never again gains momentum. Donald Trump presiding over the "Auto-Da-Fe" proceedings. The comic schtick during "It must be so" was totally destracting and completely ruined that lyrical song through inappropriate audience laughter.

Kristin Chenoweth's singing was certainly up to the demands of the score which is operatic and not your typical musical comedy stuff. She performed "Glitter and be gay" as a vaudeville act which was funny per se, but again, the visual presentation was at the expense of the music. Since Patti LuPone is a Broadway belter and not an opera mezzo, her vocal part was changed to comply with her vocal limitations (most evident in the "First Act finale", where she couldn`t sing the high notes as written). However, her "I'm easily assimilated" was great fun. The other singers were good to excellent, with Paul Groves and Sir Thomas Allen being the standouts. The conducting and orchestra was first rate.

But why an abridged version of the overture?? This is one of the most popular concert pieces of 20th century American music and they play only half of it?

Bottom line: If you're not familiar with "Candide", get one of the cast recordings and wait for Bernstein's unmarred by gimmicks Barbican concert to be released on DVD anytime soon.

I was lucky enough to be in the audience the night this performance was taped for broadcast. The terms "You had to be there" can't express the enjoyment of the evening. The entire cast led by the phenominal Kristen Chenoweth was what one might call the "DREAM CAST".Backed by the New York Philharmonic, the world's most loved orchestras in the worlds favorite city (New York), Who said you need lavish sets to make this a fun show. One remembers the the music and the performances of the singers and the musicians. I NEVER heard anyone walk out of a concert hall humming the scenery. I wish I could give more than 5 stars, because the stage was full of them that night. To be able to own a DVD of this evening, will enable all those in that SOLD OUT performance to relive that night time and time again. Thanks to the entire cast and to all those at PBS who are making it available for all eternity.

I can't get Chenoweth's rendition of "Glitter and Be Gay" out of my head. Not only is she vocally gorgeous, she made me laugh hysterically.

As for the production, it is charming. I have never seen CANDIDE before, so as an "introduction", this DVD serves its purpose.

I can't help but wonder if we are seeing a "reimagined" version, though. While watching it, I thought that the show was probably done more "straight" in its earlier inceptions. And after reading some of the reviews here, I was right.

The digital re-framing does not ruin the viewing experience, but it is noticeable. I kept wondering if they'd tinkered with the vertical and horizontal framing of a scene many times -- so, although it doesn't ruin the DVD, it *is* distracting. However, I must admit I love any video that is presented in Anamorphic format -- it looks great on my widescreen TV. (FOSSE is an example of a first-class digital, widescreen DVD.)

As mentioned in other reviews, this production is fabulous! Even if you recorded it when it aired on PBS stations, consider buying the DVD. (no pledge breaks, no cuts!) Also, the DVD has DTS 5.1 and Dolby 5.1 surround audio tracks. With surround on, you feel you are sitting in the audience! The reason I gave it 4 stars, rather than 5-- one disappointment. There is no captioning option. Not even the closed-captions from the broadcast. Having the "libretto" displayed, made it more enjoyable.

This is all around an excellent concert production. As everyone has said, Kristen Chenoweth is a fabuolous Cunegonde. Her performance of Glitter and Be Gay is stunning -- I watched it three times when I first saw it. The semi-staging is fun and lively and brings some visual energy to what might have been a static presentation. Some of the ideas don't work or are a bit too cute, but the effort to enliven the concert experience is largely successful.

I have two reservations.

First, Paul Groves as Candide. Groves has a lovely tenor voice and he sings beautifully a lot of the time. However, his lower register is simply awful -- most of the low notes are either growled or missed completely. I can't believe no one else has pointed this out. This meant that virtually every song he sings is in some degree ruined.

Second, Patti LuPone. I have never particularly been a LuPone fan, but even aside from that, whatever appeal she does have does not lie in comedy. As the Old Lady, her performance is utterly un-funny and un-charming. Her version of I Am Easily Assimilated is kind of ruined because of this. She comes across as hard, coarse, obvious and rather annoying. LuPone is beter in musical roles that are dramatic rather than comic in nature -- e.g. Evita, Sunset Boulevard. Compare her to true musical COMEDY stars -- Gwen Verdon, Faith Prince, and of course Kristen Chenoweth -- and you see how ineffective LuPone is in this kind of role.

Ah, for the love of "Candide." If you want the incomparable music sung very well, this is a worthy performance, vocally outstanding in almost every department. The semi-staging, however, is desperate not to lose the audience for a single minute -- hence the crammed-in wisecracks, doltish sight gags, mugging, campiness ("beggary" becomes a sniggering pun on "buggery"), and soon-t-be-outdated topical references, as when the Grand Inquisitor turns into Donald Trump telling a condemned heretic, "You're fired" as the hapless victim is led off to be burned.

I suppose Bernstein's hapless musical, here stripped of any attempt voltaire's satire, can't be successfully staged in its original form, which flopped with Broadway audiences half a century ago. As its many admirers know, Candide has been through endless revisions since the original run in 1956-57. After the classic cast recording with Barbara Cook and Robert Rounseville, future recordings have been troubled by Harold Prince's notion that Candide and Cunegonde should be played as brainless children. Turning a mock-operetta, with its acerbic but muddled book by Lillian Hellman, into a broad comic romp turned out to be the last word -- even Bernstein threw up his hands and recorded it that way on DG. His version suffers from variable vocals and more than a touch of the lugubrious, inflated style that the aging Bernstein too often lapsed into. In this concert performance from Lincoln Center, many liberties are taken with story and staging, but essentially it's a complete score. Mediocre lyrics sit side by side with briliant ones, and even the brilliant ones are camped up (even Candide's ineffably touching lmanet,"It Must Be So," is desecrated for cheap laughs).

I didn't like seeing this classic score marred by doltish clowning, but I had to admire the excellent singing and playing throughout. Of special delight was the discovry that Broadway baby Kristin Chemoweth possesses a colorature of operatic calaiber, just what the composer wanted.