LET DREAMERS DREAM WHAT WORLDS THEY PLEASE.
A satirical novella by Voltaire meets a dazzling score by Leonard Bernstein in this 1956 operetta. The naïvely optimistic Candide sets out to explore the world, beset by an endless series of disasters, including war, an earthquake, and a shipwreck.
By turns funny, philosophical, and deeply moving, Candide mixes human foibles, supernatural catastrophes, and earthly adversity into a thoroughly entertaining whole. Come hear Bernstein’s legendary score, full of witty lyrics, romantic longing, and the greatest finale in all opera.
Friday, April 26, 2024 at 8 pm
Sunday, April 28, 2024 at 2:30 pm
Overture Hall
Sung in English with projected text
approx. run time: 2 hours 45 minutes, including one intermission
Candide
Music by Leonard Bernstein
Book by Hugh Wheeler, after Voltaire
Lyrics by Richard Wilbur, Stephen Sondheim, John La Touche, Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Parker, and Leonard Bernstein
Premiered 1 December 1956
Martin Beck Theatre, New York
Previously at MO: 1993
Candide is in love with Cunegonde, the daughter of the noble house in Westphalia where he is brought up. Dr. Pangloss, their tutor, teaches them that everything in this world is for the best, and part of God’s universal plan.
Candide is then subjected to a series of disasters that test this theory. He is expelled from Cunegonde’s home, war breaks out between Westphalia and its neighbor, and Cunegonde is seemingly killed. Candide takes comfort in the Panglossian doctrine and sets out on a journey.
He encounters Dr. Pangloss, now struck by syphilis; the two men are captured by the Holy Inquisition, and sentenced to be hanged. An earthquake occurs, killing Dr. Pangloss, but Candide escapes.
Cunegonde turns up alive in Paris and reunites with Candide. He kills her new lovers, and the pair flee to South America, accompanied by the Old Lady. After adventures among war-like Jesuits and the wise inhabitants of the lost world of El Dorado, Candide returns to Venice, where he finds Cunegonde working in a casino.
Finally disillusioned, Candide realizes that the world is neither good nor bad, but what we make of it.
-courtesy of Scottish Opera
Cast
Martin Luther Clark
Candide
Madison Opera Debut
Recently: Luis Griffith, Champion; CJ, The Factotum; First Armed Man, Die Zauberflöte (Lyric Opera of Chicago); Orderly, The Diving Bell and The Butterfly (Dallas Opera); Rapunzel’s Prince, Into the Woods (Tulsa Opera)
Jeni Houser
Cunegonde
Madison Opera Debut: Ensemble, Acis and Galatea (2013)
Recently at MO: Lucia, Lucia di Lammermoor; Opera in the Park 2019; Anne, A Little Night Music; Olympia, The Tales of Hoffmann; Amy, Little Women; Johanna, Sweeney Todd
Recently: The Queen of the Night, The Magic Flute (Metropolitan Opera, LA Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Central City Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Dallas Opera); Franzi, Die Weiden (Vienna State Opera); Lucia, Lucia di Lammermoor (Seoul Arts Center); Zerbinetta, Ariadne auf Naxos (Austin Opera, Minnesota Opera); Susanna, The Marriage of Figaro (Minnesota Opera)
Meredith Arwady
The Old Lady
Madison Opera Debut: Mrs. Lovett, Sweeney Todd (2015)
Recently at MO: Opera in the Park 2015
Recently: The Nightingale and Other Fables (Adelaide Festival Theatre); Gertrude, Romeo and Juliet; The Old Lady, Candide (The Glimmerglass Festival); Kathy Hagen, Champion (Metropolitan Opera); First Maid, Elektra (Washington National Opera); Martha, Sky on Swings (Opera Saratoga); Ruth, The Pirates of Penzance (Utah Opera)
Alan Dunbar
Pangloss / Martin
Madison Opera Debut: Alidoro, Cinderella (2012)
Recently at MO: 1st Nazarene, Salome; Sipos, She Loves Me; Joseph McCarthy / Interrogator / Frank, Fellow Travelers; Papageno, The Magic Flute; Schaunard, La Bohème; Dr. Bartolo, The Barber of Seville; Owen Hart, Dead Man Walking
Recently: Uberto, La Serva Padrona; Jesus, St. Matthew Passion (Bach Roots Festival); Soloist, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio; Soloist, Bach’s B Minor Mass (Bach Society of Minnesota); Die schöne Müllerin (Winona, MN)
James Ridge
Voltaire
Madison Opera Debut
Recently: Doc Gibbs, Our Town; Actor, Anton’s Shorts; Cyrano, Cyrano de Bergerac; Father, Eurydice (American Players Theatre); George, Who’s Afraid of Virgina Woolf; Lemml, Indecent (Milwaukee Chamber Theatre); Everton, Junk (Milwaukee Repertory Theatre)
Upcoming: Leonato, Much Ado About Nothing; Father Jack, Dancing at Lughnasa (American Players Theatre)
Robert A. Goderich
The Governor
Madison Opera Debut: Amelia’s Servant, A Masked Ball (2012)
Recently at MO: Father, The Seven Deadly Sins; 1st Jew, Salome; John Styx, Orpheus in the Underworld; Headwaiter, She Loves Me; Beppe, Pagliacci; 1st Priest / Armored Man, The Magic Flute; Spalanzani, The Tales of Hoffmann; Pirelli, Sweeney Todd
Recently: Beadle Bamford, Sweeney Todd (Middleton Players Theatre); Pirelli, Sweeney Todd (Skylight Theater, cover San Francisco Opera); Albin, La Cage aux Folles (Music Theater of Madison)
Luis Alejandro Orozco
Maximilian
Madison Opera Debut
Recently: Dr. Malatesta, Don Pasquale (Opera Omaha); Don Giovanni, Don Giovanni (Gulfshore Opera); Mano, Stuck Elevator (Nashville Opera); Flemish Deputy, Don Carlos; First Minister, Cendrillon (Metropolitan Opera); Marcello, La Bohème (Nashville Opera, Virginia Opera); Count Almaviva, The Marriage of Figaro (Intermountain Opera Bozeman); Falke, Die Fledermaus (Pacific Opera Project)
Upcoming: George, Sunday in the Park with George (El Paso Opera); Marco, Stuck Elevator (Hawaii Opera Theatre)
Hailey Cohen
Paquette
Madison Opera Studio Artist
Recently: Hattie, American Gothical (Cedar Rapids Opera); Sally, The Boy Who Wanted to be a Robot; K., Would You Eat Me? (Thompson Street Opera); Ember, Future Perfect (Bellissima Opera); Goddess of Hope, Droplet (Vizin Virtual Productions); Hansel, Hansel and Gretel (Vienna Summer Music Festival); Orfeo, Orfeo ed Euridice; Littler Daughter, Proving Up; Barbarina, The Marriage of Figaro (University of Michigan Opera)
Scott Lewis
Cacambo
Madison Opera Debut
Recently: Gabe / Mr. D / Hades, The Lightning Thief; Dick Wilkins / Topper, A Christmas Carol; Doc O’Connor, The Laramie Project; Mullins, Peter Pan (Children’s Theater of Madison); An Evening of Rodgers & Hammerstein Classics (Four Seasons Theater); Sondheim on Sondheim; Caleb, The Spitfire Grill (Middleton Players Theater)
John DeMain
Conductor
Madison Opera Debut: The Magic Flute (1995)
Recently at MO: Tosca, Trouble in Tahiti, The Seven Deadly Sins, Salome, Opera in the Park 2022, Orpheus in the Underworld, She Loves Me, Fellow Travelers, La Traviata
Recently: Blue (Glimmerglass Festival); Candide (Gran Teatre de Liceu); Porgy and Bess (Seattle Opera); Lost in the Stars (Washington National Opera)
Brian Cowing
Stage Director / Choreographer
Madison Opera Debut: Choreographer, She Loves Me (2022)
Recently: Director, The Flying Lover’s of Vitebsk (Forward Theater Company); A Christmas Carol, Stellaluna (Children’s Theater of Madison); All is Calm (Four Seasons Theatre); Choreographer, Love’s Labour’s Lost (American Players Theater); Heathers (University Theater, UW-Madison); Actor, Something Rotten, Annie (National Tour)
Upcoming: The Lightning Thief (Children’s Theater of Madison)
Sponsors
Kay & Martin Barrett
Diane Adams, in memory of Bert Adams
Carla & Fernando Alvarado
Kennedy Gilchrist & Heidi Wilde
Fran Klos
Patricia & Stephen Lucas
Thomas Terry
The Wallach Family
David Flanders & Susan Ecroyd
Amy & Jerry Nickles
The Ann Stanke Fund
