CANDIDE (1956)

Pangloss/Voltaire Bradley Dean+

Candide Brian Vu

Cunegonde Katrina Galka

Old Lady Meredith Arwady

Maximilian Schyler Vargas*

Martin/James Jonathan Patton*

Cacambo Jonathan Pierce Rhodes*

Grand Inquisitor/Governor Ryan Johnson*

Paquette Lisa Marie Rogali*

Baroness/Vanderdendur Keely Futterer*

Minister’s Wife/Queen of Eldorado Alicia Russell Tagert*

Baron/King of Eldorado Carlos Ahrens*

The Glimmerglass Festival Orchestra and Chorus

Conductor Joseph Colaneri

Original Director Francesca Zambello

Director and Choreographer Eric Sean Fogel

Set Designer James Noone

Costume Designer Jennifer Moeller

Lighting Designer Mark McCullough

Sound Designer Joel T. Morain

Hair & Makeup Tom Watson

Projected Titles Kelley Rourke

Chorus Director Katherine Kozak

Assistant Director Mario Pacheco*

Assistant Conductor Micah Gleason*

Principal Coach Grant Wenaus

Associate Choreographer Andrea Beasom

Dance Captain Madison Hertel*

Assistant Coach Laura Bleakley*

English Diction Coach Kathryn LaBouff

Stage Manager Iván Dario Cano

*Member of the Young Artists Program

Candide, a youth of obscure origins, lives with the Baron and Baroness of Westphalia and their two children, Maximilian and Cunegonde. When Candide—inspired by the coupling of his tutor, Pangloss, and Paquette, a servant girl—proposes to marry Cunegonde, he is kicked out of the castle and recruited to the Bavarian Army. After taking part in a bloody battle between Bavaria and Westphalia, he travels to Holland, where he is reunited with Pangloss, who informs him that the Baron, Baroness, and Cunegonde have been killed. In reality, Cunegonde has survived and is being shared by two lovers: Don Issacar and the Grand Inquisitor.

Pangloss and Candide travel to Lisbon, arriving just as a terrible earthquake strikes the city. As they philosophize about the event, they are overheard and arrested for blasphemy. Pangloss is sentenced to death, Candide to flogging. An Old Woman takes Candide away and orchestrates a reunion between him and Cunegonde. When Don Issacar surprises the lovers, Candide kills him; the Grand Inquisitor soon suffers the same fate. Candide, Cunegonde, and the Old Woman flee to Spain, where they meet Cacambo, who suggests they travel together to the New World.

In Montevideo, the Governor takes an interest in Cunegonde. With Cacambo, Candide goes to Paraguay and is reunited with Maximilian, who has joined a Jesuit order. When Maximilian objects to Candide’s proposed marriage to Cunegonde, Candide kills him.

Presented in English with English projected lyrics.

Twelve performances: July 8, 10m, 16m, 25m, 27, 29m; August 5, 7m, 13m, 15m, 18, 20m, 2023

Running time: 2 hours and 50 minutes, including one 25-minute intermission

+The Actor appears through the courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

Detailed ensemble casting is available on glimmerglass.org.

Candide and Cacambo flee and find themselves in El Dorado, where they lack for nothing—except Cunegonde. Determined to find her, they set off again. Cacambo sails for Montevideo to retrieve Cunegonde; the two friends plan to meet in Venice. Vanderdendur, a slave trader, agrees to take Candide to Venice, but robs him instead. Candide chooses a new traveling companion: Martin. On a Tunisian galley, Candide and Martin meet Pangloss and Maximilian—alive but enslaved—and buy their freedom. In Venice, they are reunited with Paquette, then Cacambo. At a masquerade ball, the Old Woman and Cunegonde approach Candide, looking for money. When Cunegonde’s mask comes off, Candide is startled by what she has become. He closes his Venetian palazzo and, taking the others with him, moves to the mountains, where all put away their old lives and find useful work.