Opera Australia’s Candide romps through best of all possible worlds

Opera Australia’s Candide offers a rollicking chance to ‘glitter and be gay’ for a fun night out.

Annie Aitken as Cunegonde and Dominica Matthews as The Old Lady in Candide. Photos Carlita Sari

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This rollicking and occasionally bawdy version of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide, based on the 18th-century satire by Voltaire, owes as much to its Broadway roots as it does to the world of operetta.

It’s witty and bright, full of big numbers and offers an immensely likeable cast who, given the opportunity to ham it up, responded with energy and a keen appreciation of the score.

Musically, it does not compare well with West Side Story, on which Bernstein worked almost in parallel, but the sheer enthusiasm of Candide’s cast and the quality of the singing lift this inventive production to a satisfying level.

The plot is picaresque but with a twist; instead of a likeable rogue in the title role we have a haplessly naive fellow who is persuaded by the ever-optimistic Dr Pangloss that he lives in the best of all possible worlds. No matter what happens, it must be for the best.

The character of Pangloss is based on the real-life mathematician Gottfried Leibniz, the inventor of calculus, whose tome entitled Theodicy contains the phrase “the best of all possible worlds”.

Candide, played by tenor Lyndon Watts, is probably best known for his role in the hit musical Hamilton.

The hero lives in a castle where he falls for Cunegonde, one of the baron’s children, but her disapproving father banishes Candide.

So begin Candide’s travels to Paris, Lisbon, Buenos Aires, El Dorado and back to Venice, all with humiliating setbacks, with tenor Eddie Perfect narrating the hero’s exploits deploying a delightfully dry, world-weary wit.

Leonard Bernstein’s Candide offers the best of all possible worlds for a night out.

Candide reconnects with Dr Pangloss and the er, shall we say slightly shopsoiled Cunegonde, and Inevitably discovers that his vision of the world is tainted by the venality and selfishness of mankind.

Along the way, he is helped to survive by an old lady, mezzosoprano Dominica Matthews who is almost unrecognisable, and Cacambo, played with warmth by popular New Zealand bass Eddie Muliaumaseali’i.

The highlight of the show was soprano Annie Aitken’s smashing performance as Cunegonde, in particular the whisky-swigging, coke-sniffing scene in which she performed “Glitter and Be Gay”, a coloratura tour de force of such unalloyed joy we see so rarely in opera.

Over the top? Perhaps, but the rousing applause at the end was well deserved.

Conductor Brett Weymark maintained the right pace and the chorus was in fine form.

DETAILS

• OPERETTA: Candide

• STARS: Eddie Perfect, Lyndon Watts, Annie Aitken, Dominica Matthews, Eddie Muliaumaseali’i, Euan Fistrovic Doige

• AT: Sydney Opera House

• UNTIL: March 14

• BOOKINGS: 9318 8200 or [e-mail]