around them. (Leonard Bernstein: “Candide”)The actual writing of the work into a theatrical piece was a huge task. The writers even wondered while writing it if people would accept such a complex story with unusual lyrics and music. But they went on to bring their work to the stage with it opening in New York on December 1, 1956.In the new Candide, as in Voltaire’s novel, Candide is an optimist and was taught by his mentor, that this is the best of all possible worlds. With his love interest, Cunegonde, Candide decides to leave his home in Westphalia in search of this belief of the best of all possible worlds. They wander in search of truth, goodness and honesty from one city to another and only confront tragedy and disaster along with misery and human greed. As he goes through his journey he meets many people whom die and come back to life at times making it a troubling ordeal. Finally at the end Candide no longer believes in the optimistic view and says to adopt Voltaire’s philosophy of planting a garden, cultivating it and making it grow. (Ewen 1960: 120)For all that Candide had to offer and bring forth, it failed to attract audiences and was forced to close only after seventy-three performances. Some people felt that the eighteenth century philosophical tale was not ideal for a theatre show and others thought that the story along with the music was hard to follow. Writing in the New York Herald Tribune, Walter Kerr termed Candide “a really spectacular disaster.” (Gutmann: 2001)Although in conventional terms, Candide was a flop, it has refused to die and has been periodically revived in many different versions. Leonard Bernstein had a feeling that the composition to such a complex storyline would not earn the desired success but he was still disappointed at the reaction of those critics who had earlier given him moral support. The Overture however, has become one of the most popular light...
