‘In an uncertain time, deep within a fictional European country, inside a magnificent castle lives a family of aristocrats with an unpronounceable name…’
Welsh National Opera’s brand-new production of Candide will soon be launching on stage at Wales Millennium Centre before heading out on tour throughout Wales and England. We heard from its director, James Bonas, about his hopes and views for the production.
Leonard Bernstein’s Candide is the timeless philosophical tale by Voltaire that follows a young man who attempts to navigate his life in encountering disaster after disaster, all while he moves at breakneck speed all around the world with his varying companions. As the story itself can be rather baffling, the new production’s ultimate aim is to make Bernstein’s infrequently performed work as accessible and as fun for as many people as possible. The show itself is an operetta which adopts the halfway house between musical theatre and opera, where opera singers are enhanced by microphones and goes without the usual surtitles above the stage. At an audience friendly running time of two and a half hours (instead of previous versions which have lasted three or even four hours), it is still as vocally demanding and musically exciting as any other opera or show.
WNO brings Lonny Price’s version of Candide up to date from the Age of Voltaire to speak to the modern audience with a new, multi-disciplinary approach: in combining Grégoire Pont’s fizzing animations, punk costumes, actors, dancers, singers, a musical theatre ensemble, and WNO Chorus and Orchestra all on stage at the same time, it makes for a dizzying and exhilarating theatrical experience. James tells us that with these forces ‘we have the chance to enter a world of imagination, naughtiness, absurdity and surprise where we can shift location, character and point of view in an instant’.
Thankfully, it’s not necessary to understand every detail of the plot, as confusing and absurdly fast-paced as it is. Instead, James explains that the show’s focus is to celebrate ‘all the Monty-Pythonesque lunacy of the novel’ and ‘the brilliance of this messy, impossible, lurching and ungovernable piece’ through all the creative explosion of activity on stage. Allow yourself to be swept up in the spectacle and ridiculousness of it all.
While Candide’s journey around the world may feel a million miles away from our current reality in the 21st century, James tells us that ‘Voltaire’s sharp-eyed satire of this “best of all possible worlds” remains as savage, apposite and resonant as it ever did.’ A treat for both the eyes and ears, Bernstein’s take on Candide’s story still speaks to us today in reflecting our own determination and perseverance to get through troubled times and navigate changing relationships.
Don’t miss out on experiencing Candide, opening at Cardiff’s Wales Millennium Centre on 22 June, before touring to Truro, Llandudno, Oxford, Birmingham, and Brecon.