Bonus Features: Overture to Candide
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This will be a fun bonus post for me! I get to share more fantastic music from Candide. One type of musical theater and opera overtures includes snippets of music from the full songs you’ll hear later in the show. Bernstein employed this technique in the overture to Candide, although he also adds a theme that, to my knowledge, does not appear again in the show. That theme is the initial rippling string and woodwind melody.
It may be beneficial to read a synopsis of the plot of Candide. Go ahead, I’ll wait. I have popcorn.
1) Here is “The Best of All Possible Worlds”, from the Chicago production I saw a couple years back. Can you hear what made it into the overture? It’s very brief, but it’s there. This song is at the beginning of the show. It sets up the optimistic philosophical views of Pangloss the tutor.
2) Next up is the music from the “Battle Scene”. You won’t hear the familiar part right away, but keep listening. At 1:23, you’ll hear a theme that does double duty in the show. Pay attention to that horn melody!
3) After that is “Oh, Happy We”. This one should be fairly obvious, as Bernstein kept this theme intact and it’s featured prominently in the overture. Remember the horn melody I told to you pay attention to? That’s the first part of this theme, although that setting sounds much harsher due to it being a battle scene. This song entertains me – the disparity between Candide and Cunegonde’s thoughts of what marriage will be like is just too funny!
4) This might be my favorite song in the whole show (it’s hard to choose!) – “Glitter and Be Gay”. Cunegonde has agreed to marry Don Fernando, the governor of Buenos Aires. Of course, this is after she’s been violated by two other men earlier in the show, who then were slain by Candide. So Cunegonde decides to marry this other dude, and is trying to reconcile her actions with how she had been raised. Which leads to my favorite line of the song: “If I’m not pure, at least my jewels are!” Listen for the laughter I hinted at in my previous post.
I’m giving you two versions for this song. First up is by Kristin Chenoweth. I feel she really embodies the essence of Cunegonde in this performance – remember Cunegonde’s lyrics during “Oh, Happy We”? If you like this performance, there’s a DVD available of the entire show.
I’m so glad I stumbled upon this next one, and I would love to see the visuals of this performance. Alas, all we get it audio, but I’m sure it will still entertain. So how many of you knew that Madeline Kahn could sing? I also wanted to add this one as her cause of death, ovarian cancer, is very personal to me, having lost both my mother and grandmother to it. So here’s to all those wonderful ladies!
Before I close, I wanted to share this cool chart I found as I was researching this post. It provides a nice visual of the themes of the overture and where they appear. My only quibble is that the Fanfare is also part of “The Best of All Possible Worlds”.
Here’s one more piece from Candide, even though its melody is not present in the overture. But it’s such a gorgeous piece that I had to include it. Besides, it’s the last song of the show so it seemed fitting to put it here. Enjoy “Make Our Garden Grow”:
The Shostakovich “Galop” occurs well into the second act of the operetta and provides the musical backdrop to a housewarming party during which the cast dances in a frenzy of happiness at having found a place to live in Moscow. Presume you know the plot? Anyway, it occurs at about 7 minutes into this video
Thank you, Sue! I knew the basic plot but had never seen the production to know where exactly “Galop” fit in. I do want to see the whole thing eventually. For now, though, it’s good to know what’s actually happening during this tune.