CANDIDE

By Diana Simmonds

February 26 2025

CANDIDE, Opera Australia at the Joan Sutherland Opera Theatre, Sydney Opera House, to 14 March 2025. Photography by Carlita Sari

Optimism is a funny thing, or should that be peculiar? In 2025 it’s not easy to be optimistic and one has to wonder at the bright eyes and bushy tails of Dr Pangloss (Eddie Perfect) and his pupil Candide (Lyndon Watts) as they expound the philosophy that  “all is for the best” in the “best of all possible worlds”.

Despite their best efforts, this is disproved over and over throughout the two and a half hours of the 1956 operetta whose creative team was Leonard Bernstein (music), original book Lillian Hellman, current book Hugh Wheeler after Voltaire, lyrics by Richard Wilbur, with Stephen Sondheim, John La Touche, Dorothy Parker and more Bernstein.” Ironically, however, this glittering array does make one feel optimistic.

And rightly so: from the overture – conductor Brett Weymark – the production sets off smartly and never lets up. Starting in Westphalia, Candide is booted from the castle for eyeing off the gorgeous Cunegonde (Annie Aitken). With Voltaire’s gruesome details largely overlooked, a ramshackle journey across Europe follows, then, from Lisbon to various South American locales, and finally back to Europe. It’s so complicated destination signs are successively posted on handy hooks.

In truth, worrying about where you are and who is who is not what Candide is about. More, it’s way too interesting to savour what director Dean Bryant and choreographer Freya List have done with the piece. Basically, their ideas and the way the performers bring them to life are in turn dazzling, hilarious, ridiculous, brilliant and … suddenly the thought strikes: “how long have I been sitting here grinning and chortling?”

The essence of the production is racy, irreverent comedy coupled with a joyous mix of operatic and musical theatre voices, all of which meld seamlessly to make the show work. The Opera Australia Chorus gets a fine workout onstage in various black goth and grim costumes. In the pit, the OA Orchestra does similarly well with Bernstein’s distinctive score.

Visually, the stage is a dazzle of simple yet effective set elements focused around a ratty old caravan that looks suspiciously like a 1970s Viscount Supreme. It’s a character in its own right as it transforms from Westphalia to a volcanic “auto da fe”, and on through many tricks and turns. The costumes are colourful grab bags of styles, from an eye-watering Elizabethan codpiece to Marie Antoinette wigs and bustles and other gear that are more magical realism than real. (Set and costumes by Dann Barber, lighting by Matt Scott.)

The relaxed and comical Pangloss Eddie Perfect, narrates and runs the show like a circus ringmaster, while the matinee idol affect of Lyndon Watts as the rose-tinted hero is knee-trembling. And there is a thrilling group of principals. As Cunegonde, Annie Aitken returns to the role she was born to perform and stops the show with the “Glitter and be Gay” aria. It’s augmented with brilliant funny business and if it doesn’t illegally make it to YouTube in the next little while…

Also on the sexy spectrum (at the other end) is Dominica Matthews as The Old Lady. Unlike so many opera singers, she slips into the musical theatre-operetta milieu as easily as her décolletage commands respect and focus. Smoking a long clay pipe and only slightly hindered, she says, by living with just one buttock, Matthews is a comic and musical delight.

As Cunegonde’s ditzy brother Maximilian, Euan Fistrovic Doidge is cute, saucy and sings like an angel. Similarly effective, as an elder of great voice and twinkling gravitas, Eddie Muliaumaseali’i has to be Australia’s answer to James Earl Jones. And in a sadly smaller role than usual yet with petticoats hoops-au-go-go and enviable Crocs, the glorious Cathy-Di Zhang is still with us (despite being sawn in half in January in Siegfried and Roy).

Health warning: the more fragile should be aware that there are worse things in Candide than rape and murder. There are golden sheep from El Dorado disguised as shopping trolleys, there are actual blasphemy and Jesuits. Polite society is critiqued, and the origins of the sugar industry are revealed. Slavery gets a guernsey and one can also ponder racism and antisemitism as well as one character sounding like an Afrikaaner. All in all, there is something for everyone: to enjoy, to laugh, to feel good, to be amazed, or to fulminate over. Grab a ticket.