""Candide: or, Optimism"" was the name of a witty satirical novella written by a famous French philospher Voltaire in the 18th century. In 1956 New York's Broadway presented quite a different facet of this work - a musical created by Leonard Bernstein. Finally on 2 and 3rd March, 2012, this lovely lesson in optimism shall be also presented at the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre.
Why musical, and why ""Candide""? According to the music director of the project Martynas Staškus, Voltaire's ironic notes on the political realities of his time are also very suitable for our current life in Lithuania. Spoken texts within the musical provide good ground for improvisation, so we're destined to hear some interesting thoughts about politics in Lithuania... Especially since the texts have been translated into lithuanian and ""updated"" by writer Herkus Kunčius.
The musical shall be performed in English - L. Bernstein's legendary work deserves to be appreciated the way it was written. ""Candide"" brought together some of the most famous Lithuanian stars of opera - Edmundas Seilius, Joana Gedmintaitė, Vytautas Juozapaitis, Laima Jonutytė, Regina Šilinskaitė, Audrius Rubežius, Arūnas Malikėnas, Egidijus Dauskurdis, Rafailas Karpis, Liudas Norvaišas. The role of the Narrator shall be taken up by the famous actor Vytautas Rumšas.
