On Feb. 18, La Opera gave its last performance of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide in celebration of his centenary. Based on Voltaire’s novella of the same, it’s a drama, thriller, and love story rolled into one extraordinary plot. Candide follows the story of a young man named Candide who believes he lives in “the best of all possible worlds.” However, a series of unfortunate events lead him to question all that he has been taught, and begs the question: Is this world truly as wonderful as he initially made it out to be?

In Bernstein’s version of Candide, the operetta opens with an overture welcoming everyone to the land of Westphalia, where Candide, the illegitimate nephew of Baron Thunder-ten-Tronck, lives with the baron and has fallen in love with his daughter, Cunegonde. At the castle, Candide learns from Dr. Pangloss, an optimist, who teaches him that they live in “the best of all possible worlds” and that anything that happens “is for the best.” However, following an infraction, Candide is thrown out of the castle, which is later attacked by the Bulgar Army that seeks to liberate Westphalia. After finding out that everyone was killed, he falls into despair and becomes a beggar.

Here, everything begins to go downhill for our protagonist. He has several close brushes with death, and also causes some deaths, himself. From Westphalia, he travels to Portugal with Dr. Pangloss, who has miraculously survived, and then to Paris, where he discovers that Cunegonde is alive and has acquired a new companion, the Old Lady. After Candide murders two men, the four are forced to flee to Spain. In other parts of the world, the supposedly dead characters also reunite. After being separated from the rest of his group, Candide experiences more misfortune and realizes that not everything can be explained away they were meant to be. He is eventually reunited with Cunegonde, Dr. Pangloss, and the rest of his group, but sees that they have succumbed to worldly vices. Disillusioned, Candide is no longer the naive young man whom he started out as, and resolves to devote his life to simple work and not concern himself with external affairs.

LA Opera brought this tale back to the stage in their recent production of Candide. It starred five-time Emmy Award winner Kelsey Grammer (who some might remember from the 1993 sitcom Frasier) in the double role of Voltaire and Dr. Pangloss. The role of Candide was played by rising tenor Jack Swanson. The main cast featured an array of talented artists, including two-time Tony Award winner Christine Ebersole as the Old Lady. Of course, the performance featured some of musical theater’s greatest hits, such as the comical, show-stopping Glitter and Be Gay and Make Our Garden Grow, where Candide finds redemption in settling down with Cunegonde and beginning anew.

Since it first premiered in 1956, Candide has continued to be performed in different versions all over the world. Like its main character, the production continues to develop and change form. Given the story it’s based on, being an ever changing piece of work seems oddly fitting.