By ALAN RIDING [NY Times, 13 December 2006]

PARIS, Dec. 12 — In the early 1950s, after Lillian Hellman was interrogated by the House Un-American Activities Committee, she sought revenge by persuading Leonard Bernstein to work with her on a musical adaptation of Voltaire’s great satire, “Candide.” To both playwright and composer, it seems, the parallels between the Inquisition and the McCarthyist witch hunt were self-evident.