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 Scottish Opera