Candide

Satire by Voltaire, published in 1759. The hero experiences extremes of fortune in the company of Dr Pangloss, a personification of the popular belief of the time (partly based on a misunderstanding of German philosopher Gottfried Leibniz) that ‘all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds’. Voltaire exuberantly demonstrates that this idea is absurd and inhumane.

Candide

Comic operetta by Leonard Bernstein (libretto by L Hellman, after Voltaire), first produced in Boston, USA, on 29 October 1956; it was revised in 1973 and produced at the New York City Opera on 13 October 1982. The story tells how, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary, Candide (tenor) believes everything in life is for the best. He eventually decides, after many adventures, that his philosophy was mistaken, and resolves to build a new life.