Candide (Photo: Dan Rest for Lyric Opera of Chicago)

Python parallel makes 'Candide' fun

By BOB HEISLER [NY Daily News, 10 Mar 05]

Anna Christy plays Cunegonde in NYC Opera's 'Candide.'
Monty Python fans waiting for "Spamalot" tickets can warm up happily at "Candide," City Opera's spring season opener at Lincoln Center.

If you can put aside any opera aversion, you'll find out it's not so completely different.

The orchestra is bigger, and the singers are stronger and louder. And the singing - in English - of what some consider Leonard Bernstein's greatest theater music, is compelling.

Click here for remainder of article.

---

In Best of Possible Worlds, House Could Be Smaller

By ANTHONY TOMMASINI [NY Times, 10 Mar 05]

Leonard Bernstein's "Candide" opened on Broadway in 1956 at the 1,300-seat Martin Beck Theater. Watching the New York City Opera's production that opened on Tuesday night, a revival of the acclaimed 1982 staging by Harold Prince last seen at the company more than 15 years ago, I only wished that this mostly delightful production of Bernstein's richest musical theater work, with a book adapted from Voltaire by Hugh Wheeler, could be played in a much smaller auditorium than the 2,700-seat New York State Theater.

Click here for remainder of article.

---

Review: Candide at Lincoln Center

By Marion Lignana Rosenberg [Newsday, 10 Mar 05]

Irony of fate: Two music dramas involving Grand Inquisitors and public executions are playing at Lincoln Center. In the Met's "Don Carlos," Verdi thunders and weeps, blessing the Inquisition's victims with a heavenly voice. In New York City Opera's "Candide," Leonard Bernstein spins a giddy, sardonic chorus: "Oh what a day/ for an auto-da-fé!" Hooded, abused prisoners stagger across the stage in both shows. Is someone trying to tell us something?

Click here for remainder of article.