Leonard Bernstein's "Candide" - BBC 1988
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 ส.ค. 2018
- This BBC telecast represents the world premiere of the 1988 Scottish Opera version of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide, directed by Jonathan Miller and John Wells. Bernstein attends and John Mauceri conducts this most complete version of the score ever seen on the stage. Directed for the cameras by Humphrey Burton.
- เพลง
![[Vowel]물고기는 물에서 살아야 해🐟🤣Fish have to live in the water #funny](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3G9MH063Cx4/mqdefault.jpg)
i keep coming back to this production because it is, in my opinion the best of all possible Candides. The perfect balance of book and score. Every role is perfectly cast, even down to the chorus members.
I see what you did with “best of all possible candides”.
@@notatrombonist6833how could one not?
I was lucky enough to work on this - and met the great man himself - I was a Stage Manager for the BBC at the time - glorious music, there were a few moments when i had to take my headphones off each night - as I didn't want all the chatter from the scanner in my ears! I just spotted myself at the beginning - a mere 35 years ago!
What a delightful edition! Candide is a contemporary masterpiece and this is the most sparkling version I ever saw, perfect in spirit and humour.
Thank you for all the immense talents displayed!!!! Leonard Bernstein was so happy and proud of this production. Costuming, staging, choreography, filming, commentary, acting, singing, writing, all so professionally done. Voltaire is equally proud I am sure!!!
Thanks! I was interested to hear B. B. C. Radio 4 "Building a Library" repeat on this operetta (Edward Seckerson), recommending the Scottish Opera audio excerpts (after the original cast recording which contained less music). I met Marilyn, Buonaventura and Leon & sent one of my faithful Offenbach translations (the aging woman from "Pierrette et Jacquot" Offenbach) to Anne. Is this the best ever production of "Candide"? Miller was better when he was younger & gave us the Almavivas' children, had Violetta like Duplessis, Patricia Routledge in "the Beggar's Opera" etc.. He went strange later setting "the Mikado" like the Marx Brothers, & in a hotel! That has become a stupid cliché with several operettas (with exterior settings) in a hotel! I liked the National Theatre production despite the new orchestration which was also quite faithful to Voltaire. I would recommend reading the long short story which is as unbearable as real life is sometimes. Unfortunately in real life people don't experience indignities and die, coming back to life all over again!
My highlights:
2:50 - Overture
8:28 - Life Is Happiness Indeed
13:29 - The Best of All Possible Worlds
44:58 - Auto-da-Fé (What a day)
56:36 - Glitter and Be Gay
1:14:48 - I Am Easily Assimilated (Old Lady's Tango)
1:35:44 - My Love
2:19:32 - What's the Use?
1:59:44 Words,Words,Words
37:40 dear boy
2:15:52 - Little Women are We - 2:34:35 Make Our Garden Grow
Thank u so much. Came here specifically for glitter and be gay
Man... words do change overtime, don't they?
The costumes in this production are SPECTACULAR.
This always makes me weep and think of my zany, sad incredible life of 70 years. So much left to go.
This play helped me to get an A in World Literature. I love and still watching it
You should read Voltaire’s original « Candide » and compare it with this version
amazing and Nicholas Grace is a delight and a Bernstein's humorous voice...
My wife and I were lucky enough to get to see this production at The Old Vic in London, was one of our most treasured theatre experiences of our lives. Such a pity it is not on dvd but we listen to the cd with great fondness. Love it.
I have a love-hate relationship with this opera. Individual killings can be comical if handled properly but the brutal destruction of civilians in war alwys distresses me. I'm still going to watch it because there's much to love otherwise, but will probably grizzle a bit. But it would be simply rude not to thank the person who posted this. So thank you...
This must be exactly what Voltaire had in mind when he wrote Candide - music, lyrics, tempi, and staging are just so very Voltaire-ish. Voltaire wrote Candide in three days, and Bernstein really gets that! Says a girl who shares the same sentiments. Candide is, after all, one giant FUCK YOU to all philosophers and religions that preach justification for human suffering.
But especially Leibniz
Every time I played those runs of the overture on my clarinet in high school, it caught fire every time...
Wonderful to experience a full production, closer to the original. Seeing Maestro Bernstein so pleased (cried). Anne Howard & Bonaventura Bottone were so fabulous..
Imagine conducting this with LB looking over your shoulder.
48:54
Omigod that's the West Side Story motif theme! That's how you know it's bernstein.
I noticed that too. But it's also the classic notes of the blowing of the shofar: teru-ah! Bernstein, of course, knew that.
As a band geek kid in Jr High our brilliant band teacher/director chose Overture to Candide as one of our concert pieces. I was immensely proud to be first chair flute and also had a piccolo. I ate the solo up and now every time I hear any song from Candide I am taken back. Tonight I watched Bernstein and while I love all his pieces, Candide is my favorite. I had never seen the entire play until one night I was surfing channels and saw Kristin Chenoweth and Patti LuPone concert on PBS. It was a great evening!
That last song is my theme song now. My all-time favorite Bernstein.
This is the BEST production of this musical that I have ever seen or heard! No wonder that all of the recent books about Bernstein that have been released in 2018, joyfully talk about this production. BRAVO and so good that it is available for all to watch it, enjoy it and for future generations to study it!
It's an opera.
It is a BROADWAY OPERETTA
An Operette not broadway Operetta, Bernstein have alsop composed a Musiczl (West Side Story) an Opera (A Quet Place) This is an operetta not musical or not even a Opera. Operettas have always comedy. Like Die Fledermaus of Strauss jr. Maybe the best work Bernstein wrote
@@ErlendBLygre "Operettas have always comedy....." Lehar's "Land of Smile" (Land des Lächelns) is not an operetta then? Beware of such general statements....
Bernstein called it a 'love letter' to Viennese operetta.
One of my favorite LPs as a kid was the original cast album of "Candide" with Barbara Cook and Robert Rounsville. Never could understood even then why it closed so quickly on Broadway, given the enormous amount of talent involved in its creation. When people talk about shows that were ahead of their time, this is the one that always comes to mind.
Barbara Cook's recorded version of "Glitter and be Gay" still remains my favorite. And to think she sang that every performance without any miking. AMAZING!!!
@@makeittrue Well, that's what was expected of you at the time. There are still some of us who are starved for the unamplified voice in the classic Broadway musicals. Hence the popularity of the Broadway Unplugged concerts at Town Hall.
The original Lilliam Hellman book bears no relation to Voltaire, and no version of the show can get past the fact that the original novella is a one-joke sketch. The score is top-ten but it will never work as a staged piece. This production is like an elephant.
It's great to see Lenny Bernstein in the audience.
My favorite costuming detail - at first I thought the Old Lady's skirt was askew, but every costume she wears is missing the left pannier!
I saw this when it was first broadcast in 1988, I was 17 and it just brings all those memories flooding back. Thank you for uploading it
Beautiful production of modern opera, fantastic🎉🎉🎉
Wonderful. I was fortunate to be at the final dress rehearsal and saw the performances in both Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Excellent. Mauceri is a great conductor of musicals. Read the book too. Quite short.
In the Old Ladies song "I am easily assimilated"The home village she refers to"Rovno Gubernya" was actually the home village (in the Ukraine) where Bernstein's parents emigrated from to the US.
& my grandfather
Correct. Bernstein himself wrote the lyrics to this song, which is why it mentions Rovno Gubernya.
I was at this in Glasgow,it was amazing
It doesn’t get better than this!!
This operetta is notoriously difficult to stage but Scottish Opera made a good go of it here, although Mauceri's tempi are way too fast. I wonder if this is what inspired Bernstein to give, for me, the definitive concert version of Candide in December 1989. If you've never heard or seen it (and do try to see it!) then I'm sure you'll be impressed, in spite of Bernstein and some leading cast members suffering from what was known as the 'Royal 'Flu', That's the version that will stay with me forever. It certainly made my garden grow.
How funny how we all have different reactions. When it started I thought "thank goodness, a decent tempo". Of course, Bernstein is there, was there in rehearsals, and I'm sure he would have had something to say had he not thought so. We've all seen that West Side Story rehearsal documentary! I love the Broadway brio of it.
@@beverleyklein7264 absolutely. I think these tempi are closer to the Broadway version. Much more digestible than the London Phil version, IMO. Sometimes Bernstein just drags IMO. Of course beauty is in the eye of the beholder lol
80s tempi routinely make me clench, for opera and ballet and concert works alike
How wonderful to finally see this iconic production.
Great performance, well stated and played
I love this production ! I’m new to the total story ….The music finally makes sense ! Thank you for showing it on TH-cam !
Freiderick Wolf, THANK YOU for posting this!
Quite simply a masterpiece. Thank you Lenny.
Just a wonderful opera by the great Bernstein and of course Voltaire's wonderful picaresque story.
Many thanks for making this available at last
This is so funny!!! Thank you for posting this!
What an incredible production. Thank you for posting it!
Overwhelming production of this magnificent work!
This is truly amazing.
Thank you for posting this.
Can you email me at DAMSLATTERY@hotmail.com? I would greatly appreciate it. 🤣
The Aria, Glitter and Be Gay, starts in 56:46
But not very glitteryly sung, I'm sorry to say. Hear June Anderson's version and you'll see why. (Yes, and I do know that glitteryly isn't a word!)
@@michaelpaulsmith4619 Sure, I didn't enjoy it as well. I was only pointing out the time that the song starts. :)
@@michaelpaulsmith4619 It's a word now, you invented it. And yes, June is marvelous, but for me nobody can top Barbara Cook.
Thank you, good sir.
What a lovely performance!! Bravoo!!
The "Amadeus" duet - quite delightful.
A brilliant production of Candide.
The conductor's hair isn't absurd enough.
Thank you!!
beautiful
I've just rewatched Robin of Sherwood and was pleasantly startled to see the Sheriff of Nottingham in a primary role.
Thank you so much, Freiderick Wolf! Voltaire in this translation- both trenchant and hilarious at once!
Marie Lloyd it is the actual point
Absolutely wonderful production, and my favourite opera of all time. Bernstein himself thought this was the best production of his creation that he'd ever seen. I recorded this on video at the time, but have nothing to play it on any more. I am wondering why this recording is in mono though. It was a simulcast with Radio 3, and I recorded the radio sound onto the video in stereo, also onto an audio cassette at the same time. Sadly, Radio 3 reception was a bit hissy where I lived at the time, but at least it was stereo. As I assume this video was posted by Scottish Opera (at least that's where I found the link), I naturally thought they would have used the stereo radio soundtrack. Still, better to finally have it again, than not at all.
Very fond memories of Marilyn Hill Smith and many others in the cast!
One of the remarkable things about this live performance conducted by Msuceri is the BBC mixing of the orchestral playing, You can hear colors from Bernstein’s brilliant symphonic orchestration that get lost in other videod performances. A first rate cast and chorus.
I was wondering if candide had a movie but i found this play that was the closest thing to a movie lol
The harps glissando at 5:24 is written but only the harpist herself can hear it - and quite possibly she can't even hear it.
E' una vera gioia questa rappresentazione!
I would love to see this musical
Amanda Topich. The autistic adventurer Opera, not musical!
It is a lovely operetta, with brilliant and witty lyrics to music which never ceases to serenade me. The book however, for this production seems to be rather like a paint by numbers series, which covers all the plot elements of Voltaire's original without necessarily adding to the piece as a whole. Even despite that, the brilliance of Bernstein and the lyricists shines through, and I find myself endlessly humming such beloved pieces as to name a few: "The Best of All Possible Worlds", "Auto Da Fe", "I Am Easily Assimilated". It's a shame that this piece didn't do better on broadway, but I think I can see why.
2:45 - overture
8:30 - life is happiness
10:00 - 2c
13:28 - best of all possible worlds
19:05 - oh happy we
30:00 - battle scene
31:03 - candides lament
37:35 - dear boy
43:35 - earthquake music
53:50 - paris waltz
56:35 - glitter and be gay
1:02:45 - you were dead
1:09:10 - travel to the stables
1:13:20 - universal good
1:14:45 - i am easily assimilated
1:19:55 - quartet finale
1:32:15 - assimilated utility
1:35:40 - my love
1:36:40 - maxs reprise
1:40:15 - governors exit music
1:41:10 - quiet
1:45:40 - alleluia
1:53:55 - ballad of eldorado
2:03:40 - bon voyage
2:12:00 - money
2:15:55 - we are women
2:32:20 - universal good
Venice Gavotte 2:24:10
Nothing More than this 2:28:00
Make our garden grow 2:34:35
i love this i watched over 20 times I m happy to find nicholas grace as a comic player I hope this one would be played with sarah brightman as cunegonde n john malcovitch as pangloss^^
i will be perfect with them i quess
If I were the conductor I would be scared with Bernstein in the audience
They were friends for years.
I am reading the book now for my class
Is good to have it. I saw it on television in the 1990s and not since. It's a bit too clever by half butI love the music and I get a few belly laughs
I find this opera weird but the music is good and top notch.
It is an operetta
It is an operetta
@@Dylonely42I mean, *this* version is an opera.
Nickolas Grace is perfection.
Any questions?
This is the first time I've watched Candide. Although I was visiting The Vic when it was on in 1989 and I confess I did skip to the bits that my friend and colleague was in. I think it might grow on me. AND how tall is Mark Tinkler? He's gargantuan (no offence intended), their are some strapping members in the cast who almost pale into insignificance.
No wonder the critics panned it - this is pure opera.
I've never really liked Candide. And I still really don't like it. But I find that I've actually wanted to hear this entire production. Bravo.
I agree. It's much too pleased with itself. Perhaps if you cut the opening and started with the teaching scene. Didactic and strained for the most part, with some highlights.
Puis-je trouver un CD avec sous-titre francais.
J'adore .
je vais relire Candide
I read it nowhere in the description : the story was written by Voltaire.
Read 0:49 listen 1:12
@@annikawassilak3674 Thanks. But I was talking about the description below the vidéo.
overture to candide at 2:50
Does anyone know anything about who the cast may be? I suspect Marilyn Hill-Smith as Candide and is that perhaps Anne Howard singing "I am easily assimilated"? I love the quote in the choreography from the Rose Adagio from Sleeping Beauty with the 4 suitors 1:17:28
You can buy the CD quite easily with all those details.
Marilyn Hill-Smith played Cunegonde, not Candide.
You are correct about Anne Howard.
@@wsc1018 That's like Donald Macleod saying June Bronhill played Lieutenant Montschi "A Waltz Dream". She just substituted herself (title-song) for the second tenor. (Record producer?) The soprano isn't meant to sing it till the very end!
I've always been frustrated by Candide-- such a beautiful score (and well performed here), and clever lyrics, but married to such a dramatically uncompelling story that even competent direction can do little to make a staged performance better than a recorded or concert version.
How is the story uncompelling?
@@jamestown8398 It is episodic and satiric - The Unities of time, place and action don't work for this piece, as they do in West Side Story, say.
10:53 life is a... What? 😱
12:37 Paquette's line is "Life is indeed penis indeed." and 12:42 Cunegonde only sings "-piness" or, rather...penis in response to Candide's "sheer hap-" Something naughty you don't really catch unless you're looking at a score.
You can't tell me that Bernstein and his lyricists didn't notice this when composing this, lol. Geniuses can sometimes be naughty.
@@neil7137 Happy Thanksgiving bro 🤣👍
Marilyn Hill Smith is amazing as Candide. Her Glitter and Be Gay is the best I've seen - and I've seen some good versions of this operetta. This was one of the things I had to study when at Leeds College of Music - and I've loved it ever since - over 55 years ago! Enjoy. Caroline Fields.
In a forgivable slip of the keyboard, you have mistaken the role of Cunegonde for that of Candide ... just saying'.
Update ; I just read some other comments ... did they make Candide a trouser role?
of course. You are quite right. A slip of the brain or the fingers. I know it's one of them!!
I've actually met Marilyn so sorry about that - she was on the Good Old Days at The City Varieties Music Hall in Leeds a few years ago and was brilliant. although stuck to music hall songs! Ta Caroline Fields
@@carolinefields6246 I met her at our beloved Theatre Museum. It used to be in Covent Garden. The Victoria and Albert put a stop to it. Apart from the singing it was quite a tour de force remembering where each piece of jewellery was!
19:09 is the love theme
4:30: Richard Strauss ?
Without Barbara Cook, you can’t call this “ the best” production of Candide . Her performance remains unsurpassed. Kristen Chenowith is a close second.
14:13
"OBJEEEEEECTION! What about snakes?"
*eWwW*
1:40:00
So this is Frasier's most favourite musical?
2:34:36
1:17:16
Anthony Blanche , Nickolas Grace is in this.
Did this use Hellmann or Wheeler's book?
It's an adaptation and expansion of Wheeler's book. Hellman withdrew her book, and it can no longer be performed. Not that there's any reason to -- it was godawful, dreadfully unfunny and the major reason for the play's failure on Broadway.
sino nandito para sa module
I love Candide, but I also think that without ebullient performers and bright sets and costumes, the show can appear dull and the pace can drag ... it is best to make. a selection of the best material than attempt to include everything. The best version so far recorded I, in my opinion, the concert version with Patti Lupone and Kristen Chenoweth, because it keeps the production comical and pacy, which prevents this wonderful show from drowning in its own wealth of goodies.
It's really hard to top that overture...
fringelily fringelily
Sadly you are so right.Over 30 years this work has had so many versions and re+writes,that the holes in the plot/productions(but not the music) become glaringly obvious when done as a concert version.
Many people (not me) are confused,as they cannot decide (in their pigeon holed minds) "Is it a musical, is it an opera"and so the leave it alone.This is sad because it is undoubtedly a masterpiece.Shall I be sacrilegious,and say that the choice by Bernstein and Hugh Wheeler (and many,many,many others! )was a poor one.Voltaire was a genius,but the brave and (a little bit) foolish attempt to bring it(Candide the book)to the (then) 20thC public and leave its 1759 plot,and morals intact.Most of the modern productions(especially concert) only seem to confuse many people.
I prefer to listen to it(in CD) and enjoy the music,trying to work out the plot can be frustrating and some what pointless.
It was good but the horribly casual joke about Cunegonde's rape sickened me.
The "joke" is in the book by Voltaire to expose and condemn, the moral attitudes of 18thC men to rape,and their views of women.It was not created by either Hugh Wheeler or Leonard Bernstein, they merely followed Voltaire's writings.
@@MrSwifts31 The joke I'm talking about is Cunegonde being tossed in a blanket several times to signify multiple rape. The first time she cries out in pain. The second time she sighs in pleasure. That was down to the director, not Voltaire or the other writers. And it's unpleasant .
Where is "Quiet"?
I disagree with Timothy Smith. It's a unique version portrayed in different time period than other versions and the voices are wonderful.
How one longs to be capable of catching every spoken word. But the acoustic technologies of the day do not permit it. When an Opera is in Italian or German one accepts missing the occasional expression. But, in English the same can't be said. It's all so good, which makes it even more frustrating.
It will never work dramatically. The score is an all-timer, but the book will never work.
However "allegro con brio" Lenny may have intended for the Overture, I would nonetheless maintain that a slight slowing down of the breakneck pace in which this performance begins might benefit in allowing the listener to better distinguish the subtlety of Bernsteins' thrilling lines of instrumental counterpoint.
John Wells taught me French at school.
I was invited to dinner at LB's Italy home in 1967. An incredible evening.
This was despite my taking the piss by singing a satirical off-key "Maria" on first spotting him at a distance.
Now for the rest. Rather like being faced with a sumptuous feast for the first time.
This production has great production values and staging, but I find the line readings to fall flat, the acting over wrought and not quite executing the broad humor that they intended, and some of the performers are clearly better singers than actors.
What happened to the last line?? Nice production but not very exciting. It really needs musical theatre performances.
mid
Very disappointed in Cunegonde’s aria. Not only sloppy, but just plain wrong notes
Ahahahahah what are you talking about? Which wrong notes, please? Check the score.
Marilyn Hill-Smith was an extremely accomplished musician and singer.
You're right, Daniel. Bernstein's own concert version of the opera was given in December 1989, just a year before his death. If you haven't heard or seen it then you're really missing out on something. June Anderson delivers that aria to perfection.
@@michaelpaulsmith4619 Link to review?
i had always heard how bad this show is......and wow its far worse than i ever thought it could be.....its awful.....people are just glad its over.....i would demand my money back.....nothing was good ......i like the theatre and act curtain.....
This work seems to only be intended for a concert and not a stage production
Horrible version. Really stiff and uncomfortable. The leads make NO eye contact during the "intense" final duet. They play to the audience while the other looks longingly nowhere. Looks like a high school play. It's THAT bad!!!!! The best TH-cam version: Candide (Groves/Chenoweth/LuPone/Allen/Blumenkrantz/LaManna).
I watched almost two hours of this before I came to the conclusion that it’s rubbish.
Oh really? Why is that??
Voltaire might disagree with you, but he'd defend to the death your right to say it.
Apart from the horrible war references, it's really good. But the screen went blank after the beginning of act two. Was the whole opera recorded? I did like what I saw up to then.
@@anniespencer7879 The whole performance is there -- try again.
@@anniespencer7879 Actually, come to think of it, the screen does go "blank" just
after the beginning of Act Two (at 1:27:01), but it picks up again at 1:28:01, replaying most of the brief intermission feature before returning to a complete, uninterrupted copy of Act Two (beginning at 1:30:55).