Candide

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Why is the world in crisis when everyone seems to only want the best? We live in the best of all possible worlds, young Candide learns from his teacher Pangloss. And although Candide experiences war, epidemics and natural disasters, although Candide's homeland is destroyed, his lover Cunegonde is raped and he himself narrowly escapes death several times, he remains an indestructible optimist on his adventurous journey through the Old and New Worlds. When Voltaire wrote his novel Candide in 1759, the Lisbon earthquake had just thoroughly shaken faith in divine order, and when Leonard Bernstein composed a very American operetta based on Voltaire's novel in 1956, the world was in the midst of the Cold War. Today the world is experiencing one crisis after another and the satirical operetta Candide describes the craziness of this world better than ever. Leonard Bernstein's score, which he himself reworked several times, is a homage to European music history, full of parodic humor and brilliantly orchestrated. Marin Alsop, chief conductor of the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna and herself a student of Bernstein, will conduct Candide; the American director Lydia Steier makes her debut in Vienna.

Program and cast

Leonard Bernstein

 

Comic operetta in two acts

Scottish Opera version

Music by Leonard Bernstein

Book by Hugh Wheeler based on Voltaire

Lyrics by Richard Wilbur

with additional lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, John La Touche, Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Parker and Leonard Bernstein

Orchestration by Leonard Bernstein and Hershy Kay

Musical transitions and additional instrumentation by John Mauceri

Theater an der Wien

About the Theater an der Wien

The New Opera House is not just any theatre, but the one that Emanuel Schikaneder, the all-round genius, actor, impresario with a flair for organization but above all librettist of The Magic Flute, had built in 1801 in Vienna in keeping with the spirit of Mozart.

To coincide with the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth the Theater an der Wien presents itself as a new opera house from January 2006. As a “season” opera house with productions all the year round the Theater an der Wien carves a new and independent niche in the realm of high-quality culture in Vienna. For twelve months of the year, with one premiere every month, opera will be performed under the “stagione”, or season, system: that means the cast remains unchanged from the first performance to the last one, which guarantees that the very highest international standards are maintained.

The theatre’s modern, accessible approach to music theatre as demonstrated by the works performed, the overall artistic concept Bespielung and the artistes is further underlined by the building itself, its architecture and the vibrancy of its location. The surroundings and materials, the intimate atmosphere and perfect acoustics in the historical theatre prepare the senses to experience beauty. The Theater an der Wien deliberately enters into a symbiotic relationship with its lively surroundings on the Naschmarkt street market and the young cultural scene centred in the Schleifmühl quarter.
 

How to get there


With public transport:
 

We can be reached by public transport: 

U1, U2 und U4 Station Karlsplatz, Exit Secession
Bus 59A Station Bärenmühldurchgang
Bus 57A Station Laimgrubengasse, pedestrians via Laimgrubengasse to Linke Wienzeile

KAMMEROPER:
Fleischmarkt 24, 1010 Wien


We can be reached by public transport:
U1, U4: Station Schwedenplatz
Tram Linie D (bei Ablenukung über Kai), 1, 2: Station Schwedenplatz
Bus 3A (on workdays)

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