Thanks for the clarificiations (and clarity) DR Elmore.
I know your standards are high, and given that you live in NYC, there's an awful lot to live up to for most "presentations." Sadly, as is true in the movie business, those making the decisions and doing the conceptions aren't necessarily gifted enough to be playing with the professionals.
I love the singing in the Lupone-Chenoweth "Candide"...primarily, though, the singing of Chenoweth and the tenor who sings "Candide."
And I find the "Make Our Garden Grow" number thrilling/chilling to hear.
But I can see more finely tuned tastes deploring the ramshackledyness of it all.
Bernstein never liked the 1973 version because it trivialized his score, put music written for one locale into another, and cut too much of it. He had similar problems with the City Opera version, which crammed into the basic 1973 rewrite more music, but often not where the musical parodies lie, such as dumping the Ravel-like "Paris Waltz" into either South America or another spot, and removing or reassigning a lot of Cuinegonde's music because she doesn't appear much in Act Two of the City Opera version.
I've seen Lonny Price do good work, but not here: he chooses the 1973 version for his basic text, Lupone is not a legit enough singer: the Old Lady is a legit mezzo role - the work is, after all, an operatic spoof as well as Bernstein running through Western Music of the past 300 years. This is one of my favorie pieces, and I think the Philharmonic and Marin alsop should be embarassed by what they did to Bernstein. The 1968 50th birthday concert was far superior.
