Candide (1956) is an operetta with music composed by Leonard Bernstein, based on the novella of the same name by Voltaire. The original libretto was written by Lillian Hellman, but since 1974, has been generally performed with a book by Hugh Wheeler, which is more faithful to Voltaire's novel. The primary lyricist was the poet Richard Wilbur. Other contributors to the text were John Latouche, Dorothy Parker, Lillian Hellman, Stephen Sondheim, and...
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Candide (1956) is an operetta with music composed by Leonard Bernstein, based on the novella of the same name by Voltaire. The original libretto was written by Lillian Hellman, but since 1974, has been generally performed with a book by Hugh Wheeler, which is more faithful to Voltaire's novel. The primary lyricist was the poet Richard Wilbur. Other contributors to the text were John Latouche, Dorothy Parker, Lillian Hellman, Stephen Sondheim, and Leonard Bernstein. Hershy Kay, John Mauceri, and Maurice Peress contributed orchestrations.
Candide was originally conceived by Lillian Hellman as a play with incidental music in the style of her previous work, The Lark. Bernstein, however, was so excited about this idea that he convinced Hellman to do it as a "comic operetta"; she did then write the original libretto for the operetta. Many lyricists worked on the show: first James Agee, then Dorothy Parker, John Latouche and Richard Wilbur. In addition, the lyrics to "I Am Easily...
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