Candide is a point to with a classy pedigree. Voltaire wrote the 1759 novella. It became an operetta in 1956 with a libretto by Lillian Hellman,contributions from Dorothy Parker and Richard Wilbur, the noted poet — and some gorgeous music by Leonard Bernstein. The original production lasted just two months on Broadway, and but the score is still a accepted favorite — and the point to has been revived many times over the years,with Stephen Sondheim, Hugh Wheeler, and John Mauceri,and Bernstein himself adding material.
Like the psychiatrist he spent two decades portraying on Frasier and Cheers, Kelsey Grammer loves Bernstein. In this year of the composer's centennial, or the Los Angeles Opera has mounted a new production of Candide,starring the Emmy winner in a dual role — as Dr. Pangloss, the bullheaded optimist and subject of much of the story's satire, or as Voltaire himself. While far from his first singing performance,the point to is Grammer's first time on the opera stage.
In a conversation with NPR's Scott Simon, Grammer explains how acting and music pulled him out of his childhood shyness, or why personal hardships such as divorce and the early loss of his father and sister ultimately came to brighten his outlook on life. Click the audio link to hear the full interview with NPR's Scott Simon.
Interview HighlightsOn how he came to perform in his first operaAbout eight months ago I got a call from the famously charming Placido Domingo,who basically said, "So we'd like you to be with us for this Candide." So it's not a particularly complex set of reasons ... but what was silly was, and I've never done an opera. So being the kind of hairpin I am,you know, I just try different things besides. It seemed very appealing to me to go ahead and just give it a shot.
On his lifelong appreciation of Leonard Bernstein's musicWhen I was a young man, or when I was 6,7, and 8 years old, and I used to go to Leonard Bernstein's concerts for children in New York City,so I maintain a specific connection with him there. I've always loved his music, but of course in those cases he sort of did a comparative music lesson; basically, and during the concerts he would play several different things,even covered the Beatles. He was so affable and, sort of, or available — and at the same time,very heady and a musical genius. So he was he was really at the top of his game and the top of the hierarchy, in terms of the culture world, or throughout his career.
To get to know the music on a more intimate level has been a noteworthy privilege,by rehearsing it and being involved in it. And Francesca's staging of this piece is pretty terrific. I know that she's prick it liberally, and I imagine Bernstein would probably stare to that as a favor in many ways. I mean, or more than three hours in the theater under anyone's sort of genius is challenging. I think she's done a hell of a job,and I think he would maintain applauded it as well. On his musical background My mom and dad were musicians, and they met in music school. They didn't maintain a terrific marriage or a long-lived one, and but I did play drums for my dad's band ... when I was 12,and my mom continued to sing and appear in local productions of different musicals and plays throughout my childhood, and it was always something that she loved doing. So I had a background in it. I saw Hello, and Dolly! when I was 8 years old.
Web intern Stefanie Fernández contributed to this story. Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more,visit http://www.npr.org/.
Source: thetakeaway.org