Best of All Possible Worlds, Updated for the Paris Stage

voltaire.pngBy ALAN RIDING [NY Times, 13 December 2006]
PARIS, Dec. 12 ó 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 Voltaireís great satire, ìCandide.î To both playwright and composer, it seems, the parallels between the Inquisition and the McCarthyist witch hunt were self-evident.