Candide
Leonard Bernstein
Candide
The famous American composer, conductor, and an avid promoter of music Leonard Bernstein is also the author of one opera and several musicals, of which the West Side Story, staged in Pilsen for the first time in May 2017, belongs to the best that has ever been created in this genre.
However, in the shadow of this opera unjustly remains Candide, based on Voltaire’s short story, in its first version in 1956 subtitled as a comic operetta and in the reworked version of 1974 as a musical. The first staging in our country was in 1980 in Brno, and in 2006 in the State Opera in Prague.
Candide, a naïve young man grows at his uncle’s, baron Thunder-ten-Tronckh’s chateau in Westfalia, where he is being raised and taught by the philosopher and scholar dr. Panglos, an avid supporter of an optimistic philosophy claiming we live in the best of all the worlds possible and that all what is happening is inevitable. When Candide falls in love with baron’s daughter he is expelled from the chateau and embarks on a long journey around the globe. From Westfalia in Germany he travels across many lands, experiences sea voyage and shipwrecking, gets lost in a South American rainforest… Wherever he sets foot he meets all sorts of evil caused by individuals, the society, and nature, but he eventually realizes that things are completely different and that everyone has their destiny fully in their hands.
The work is ingenuously composed: the philosophical theme is presented parallel with an emotional one. The plot, consisting of small episodes, holds together the theme of travelling, combined with the biography of the main character.
Creators
- Hudba:
- Leonard Bernstein
- Libreto:
- Hugh Wheeler podle Voltaira
- Texty písní:
- Richard Wilbur
- Další texty:
- Stephen Sondheim, John La Touche, Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Parker, Leonard Bernstein
- Instrumentace:
- Leonard Bernstein, Hershy Kay
- Hudební dramaturgie a další instrumentace:
- John Mauceri
- Translation:
- Ivan Vomáčka
- Musical arrangement:
- Jiří Štrunc
- Conductors:
- Jiří Petrdlík / Jiří Štrunc
- Directed by:
- Tomáš Ondřej Pilař
- Stage Design:
- Petr Vítek
- Costume:
- Eva Jiřikovská
- Light design:
- Daniel Tesař
- Choreography:
- Martin Šinták
- Dramaturgical cooperation:
- Tomáš Ondřej Pilař, Vojtěch Frank
- Choirmaster:
- Jakub Zicha
- Asistent dirigenta:
- Zdeněk Červinka
- Assistant director:
- Josef Doležal
- Musical preparation:
- Maxim Averkiev, Martin Marek
- Jazykový poradce:
- Becca Conviser
- Prompter:
- Viktorie Šimůnková
- Stage manager:
- Petra Kuldová Tolašová
Prersons and actors
- Voltaire, Pangloss, Martin:
- Lumír Olšovský
- Candide:
- Michal Bragagnolo / Richard Samek
- Maximilián, Kapitán:
- Jiří Hájek / Jakub Hliněnský
- Guvernér, Vanderdendur, Ragotski:
- Marek Žihla
- Cunegonda:
- Soňa Godarská / Doubravka Novotná
- Stará dáma:
- Jana Foff Tetourová / Venuše Zaoralová Dvořáková
- Paquetta:
- Zuzana Koś Kopřivová / Jana Piorecká
- Inkvizitor I, Karel Eduard:
- Roman Krebs / Jan Ondráček
- Inkvizitor II, Král Stanislav:
- Dominik Klapka / Dalibor Tolaš
- Inkvizitor III, Car Ivan:
- Jevhen Šokalo
- Sultán Achmet, Ničema, Baron:
- Jan Maria Hájek / Jan Ondráček
- Velký Inkvizitor, Hermann Augustus:
- Jiří Kubík / Martin Matoušek
- Baronka:
- Daria Guliaeva
- Sbor opery DJKT, Orchestr opery DJKT, Balet DJKT
Photos from the production
Photo author: Martina Root
This production is presented by permission of Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Limited.
- Staged in English original (singing numbers) and Czech translation (spoken dialogues).
- Please note that tobacco products are used in the production.
- The production includes flashes of light and gunfire.
- The length of the production is given including 1 intermission.
