Candide
Tanglewood
“Moritz’ staging…was smooth, lucid, buoyant. What an evening of theatre!”
The Berkshire Eagle“Under the stage direction of Alison Moritz…Bernstein’s problem-child seemed more like a wunderkind.”
The Berkshire Eagle“In an evening of unending joys and marvel, the particular joy of this production was its exuberant, impudent sense of play; its smart invention and imagination; the breathtaking skill and talent to pull it off...”
The Berkshire Eagle“Bernstein and all his creative partners would have been exhilarated by this Candide. Regrettably, it had only two brilliant performances.”
Berkshire On Stage“The Knights’ production was supremely satisfying and intelligent, emphasizing equally the show’s dazzling orchestral music, delicious book, glorious lyrics and carefully calibrated comic acting.”
The Berkshire Edge“…the comedy is often intercut with unexpected passages of great poignancy.”
Classical Scene
Production Details
Production Highlights
- New Production
- Tanglewood Music Festival, August 2018
- Presented by The Knights
Creative Team
- Director:
- Alison Moritz
- Conductor:
- Eric Jacobsen
- Choreographer:
- John Heginbotham
- Production Designer:
- Aaron Copp
- Costume Designer:
- Amanda Seymour
- Hair and Makeup:
- Tommy Kurzman
- Photographer:
- Christopher Duggan
A Message From Alison
Leonard Bernstein’s delicious operetta takes us around the world in under three hours, following our hero’s picaresque adventures and vast changes of fortune as he encounters a dazzling array of characters (and caricatures).
But how to evoke all this on the concert stage?
Maestro Eric Jacobsen and I have re-imagined Bernstein’s baroque romp as a clown-car of a production - a compact package consisting of a one ring circus tent, a single trunk containing props, and a lean ensemble of 13 singers and dancers. In this production, Voltaire’s “best of all possible world’s” becomes “the greatest show on Earth,” and a modern circus provides a new context in which to explore the humor in violence, the hope in tragedy, our fantasies and our fears.
Press
- BEST OF:CANDIDE named BEST theatrical event of 2018 (Berkshire Eagle)
- BEST OF:Alison named “Best Director” (Berkshire Eagle)
- VIDEO:“Make Our Garden Grow” (Zac James Nicholson)
- PREVIEW:Weekly Pick (The New Yorker)
- REVIEW:“The Best of All Possible Candides” (Berkshire Eagle)
- REVIEW:“Garden Grows at Tanglewood” (Classical Scene)
- REVIEW:“Sexy, philosophical Candide” (The Berkshire Edge)
- REVIEW:“The Knights Present Candide at Tanglewood” (Berkshire Onstage)
- FEATURE:“Aaron Copp Lights Candide” (Live Design)
