Sleeper Cell: Candide (2005)

Jul 302010

Now I know what you‚Äôre thinkin. You saw the title ‚ÄúCandide‚Äù and thought, ‚ÄúHe‚Äôs not really going to talk about eighteenth century French literature is he??

Vous misez ton cul I am.

Recorded live from Avery Fisher Hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, New York. It‚Äôs here we start the newest of the short-spanned themed reviews. Beginning with the Operetta Candide. Based on the 1759 novel Cadide, ou l‚ÄôOptimisme by Voltaire. Composed in 1956 by Leonard Bernstein from Lillian Hellman‚Äôs libretto. Adapted in 2005 by Lonny Price from a 1974 updated revival version by Hugh Wheeler.

Now that I‚Äôve effectively weeded out 99 percent of all mediabreach readers ever, I‚Äôll let you in on the secret. This is funny as hell (aside from an unfortunate anachronistic Donald Trump joke). Here‚Äôs the story of Candide: Candide, our hero, is a young man growing up in a very nice castle (you might even say it’s the best castle of all possible castles) in the country of Westphalia (which is probably the best country of all possible countries) when he‚Äôs ousted for getting to ‚Äúknow‚Äù (in the biblical sense) the young maiden Cunegonde. That sounds a lot like cunnilinigus. And it‚Äôs supposed to. And if 18th century oral sex jokes don‚Äôt get you into French lit, nothing will. So he leaves, but it‚Äôs ok ‚Äòcause he‚Äôs an optimist!

Leibniz him-happy-self

A Brief History of Optimism

The particular brand of Optimism on showcase here is not the simple look-on-the-bright-side kind of exuberance. Candide parodies a specific kind of optimism: Leibnizian optimism. And we‚Äôll keep it short in favor of keeping the remaining 1 percent of my audience. The basic premise (as put forth in Gottfried Leibniz‚Äôs seminal work Theodicee) is the rationalization of the seeming imperfections and injustices of our world; they¬†exist so that God‚Äôs world (which must be the best since it is of a perfect God) can be the best possible and most balanced world. Why else would God have allowed it to exist? Thus, it must follow, that everything that happens in this world happens so that this world remains the best and most balanced of all possible worlds. Ergo, all things happen for the best possible outcome.

And seeing as how everything is for the best, Candide fights in the best war of all possible wars, and Cunegonde is raped by an entire army of Bulgars in the best of all possible rapes. And she and her family are killed in the best of all possible brutal executions. And if this is sounding like a colossal joke, that‚Äôs a good sign. Voltaire thought optimism was stupid. As should you.

Top 5 Other 18th Century French Novels (The Using-Apostrophes-to-Cheat Haiku Version)

Diderot ... but it breaks!

5 ‚Äì Epistolary,
hot and Malkovichian:
Dang‚Äôrous Liasons

4 ‚Äì De Sade does it with
corpses and broomhandles in
his The Crimes of Love

3 ‚Äì Jacques Cazotte pictures
life in Twenty-Four Forty
in The Devil in Love

2 ‚Äì The “realistic”
Manon Lescault from Antoine
Prevost: “real” boring.

1 ‚Äì Diderot writes. But
nothing links. Goethe translates.
Qua? Rameau‚Äôs Nephew.

As far as the performances go, Candide is amazing. Kristin Chenoweth gained her popular stardom thanks to her performance as Glinda in the uncompelling Broadway musical Wicked in 2003. But you should know her and love her from the ABC television series Pushing Daisies. And for those following along, yes, she is the cutest four foot eleven 42 year-old on the planet. And opera veteran Paul Groves certainly looks the part of the bewilderingly trustworthy and fairly dopey hero, Candide.

So, in France in the 1740s, it was pretty en vogue to insult other peoples‚Äô philosophies and generally try and be smarter than everyone else you know. Louis XIV (The Sun King who had an awesome episode of Encyclopedia (the HBO childrens’ show) feature a song about him that I could find nowhere online) had just died, leaving the country with a massive spending deficit and a equally massive sense of self-importance. This very American sense of the ability to do anything coupled with the intellectual awareness of a global status (culminating with the conflict in the new world) allowed men like Voltaire (born Francois-Marie Arouet) to see that this world wasn‚Äôt simply handed to us by God so we could lounge about and eat fatty cakes (which I‚Äôm not against), but that it was our responsibility to work for the betterment of the entire world. And definitely not to let the savages in Portugal, Spain and England take over it all first.

But back to an actual review of the damn video.

Leonard Bernstein’s Candide opened on December 1, 1956 to universal dislike. Go figure. It ran for only two months and was panned by the New York Times for being “too serious.” Could be. I didn’t see that version. But the following year, after years of work with Stephen Sondheim, West Side Story debuted on Broadway and gave Bernstein the blank check he’d use for the rest of his career to do whatever he wanted. And in 1988, Bernstein began to work with John Mauceri to produce a new version of the operetta that reflected his final vision for the story. His “final revised version” (which has since been revised a few more times including this production) is the basis for this 2005 staging by Lonny Price. Included in Leonard Bernstein’s final legacy is his brief mention in “It’s The End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” by the popular rock band R.E.M.

And this is an operetta, not an opera. Which means that it‚Äôs a little light-hearted in terms of plot and musical complexity. There are no 15 part harmonies. And while you could argue that the subject matter is more important than the average operetta fare, it is definitely a comedy. And you are supposed to laugh out loud. Helping you along are the great costumes and actors.

Chenoweth pushing her daisies

Rounding out the cast:

Sir Thomas Allen as the Narrator and Dr. Pangloss (who teaches young Candide the joys of optimism and subsequently gets syphilis. Teehee!) – and another verbal pun – “Pangloss” in the Greek means “all tongues” which could refer to his learned status, but more likely refers to his fondness for Cunegonding

Janine LaManna as the busty Paquette ‚Äì a servant girl to the baroness and local tramp who gives various people various venereal diseases.

Jeff Blumenkrantz as the incredibly effeminate Maximillian ‚Äì the beautiful brother to Cunegonde and snappy dresser.

And Broadway superstar Patti LuPone as the creatively named Old Woman who becomes Cunegonde‚Äôs buddy and partner in prostitution.

It could be my familiarity with the original novel, but I really laughed a lot at this. Candide is one of the oldest dark comedies. It pokes fun at mass murder and rape and religion and natural disasters and fat people and really whatever else you can think of. Great stuff. And the presentation really helps sell the point. The chorus and orchestra are not hidden. They share the stage with the actors and serve as a constant reminder of a comic performance. The choir (the prestigious Westminster Symphonic Choir) are all dressed in matching tee shirts and interact with the actors when they are needed as the invading army or sailors or the like. The transfer works well for the home video presentation. There’s a strange, tinny echo on the DVD when the audience engages in applause, and it’ll stick out at first, but I was completely ignoring it by the end of the show, and the rest of the sound does a great job of accentuating the vocal talent. All in all, it’s a great video adaptation.

There are cetain movie universals. No one says, “Yeah, Avatar was ok, but the action just wasn’t that great.”¬†You know, if you like¬†sci-fi mind-benders, you‚Äôll like Inception. If you like action movies in general, you‚Äôll like Terminator. If you like comedies, you’ll like Airplane! And if you like musicals you‚Äôll like this. So while I‚Äôm not sure how much convincing I can do with a review like this, I can at least point you in the direction of the best of all possible silly fun.