Based on the text by Voltaire (1759), Leonard Bernstein’s opera Candide(1956) is a sharp and witty musical satire on foolish optimism, inequality and the abuse of power. Welsh National Opera’s brand-new production of the opera brings to life the central question of how we as individuals can achieve happiness and lead the best possible lives. Many lessons can be learned from the work’s comical take on simplistic views, so let’s have a look at some of the most important.
Be cautious in your optimism.
Optimism and the search for happiness is a central theme in the opera. Candide is taught by his teacher Dr Pangloss that they live in ‘the best of all possible worlds’ and that they have no reason to feel sad or upset. Even when bad things happen, they are necessary evils that are part of a larger plan that keeps the harmony of the universe in balance: in Dr Pangloss’s eyes, war is not an avoidable conflict of enormous hardship, but a ‘blessing’ in disguise.
However, Dr Pangloss’s over-optimism makes him blind to the suffering of others. While it is important to maintain an optimistic outlook on life, we must not do so to others’ detriment or rejection of reality.
A perfect world doesn’t guarantee happiness.
In Act II, Candide and Paquette stumble into the land of El Dorado, a utopia untouched by the rest of the world, where the streets are paved with gold and courts and prisons are non-existent. El Dorado’s people live in paradise, lacking nothing as their country has supplied them with everything they will ever need or want. Candide and Paquette are delighted, but soon grow bored with the easiness of life. Candide wishes to be with his beloved Cunégonde, asking where she might be, and they leave the land to search for her.
While money and riches can make your life temporarily more pleasant or easy, it won’t always satisfy your deepest desires, buy you more time or undo the past.
Cultivate your garden – look after yourself and your community.
Before the last number of Candide, ‘Make Our Garden Grow’, Candide, Cunégonde and their friends find themselves in Constantinople, tired and hopeless after having suffered through so much disaster, personal tragedy and loss. A Sage introduces them to simple but sustaining work on a farm that finally gives Candide a feeling of fulfilment and wellbeing.
Candide concludes that to live the best life that we can, we alone are responsible for our own happiness. To close, Candide answers the opera’s central question – that, in focusing on caring for ourselves and our own community, in tending our own garden, we can all live better and more meaningful lives.
Don’t miss WNO’s thrilling new production of Candide in Cardiff this June before It heads out on tour to Truro, Llandudno, Oxford, Birmingham and Brecon until 15 July 2023.