Is Leonard Bernstein's Candide an opera, a comic-operetta or a musical? "Yes to all. What's wonderful about my father's music is that it bridges so many genres," Jamie Bernstein, the composer-conductor's daughter, writer and narrator, said in an interview with The Daily Yomiuri during a promotional visit to Japan. "Candide is a musical, an opera, and an operetta all mixed together. That's what my father always liked to do."

The stage production directed by Robert Carsen with an orchestra led by Yutaka Sado is now performing in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, and will arrive in Tokyo next week. Also speaking at a press conference, Bernstein said the production has something for everyone.

"It has wonderful melodies, humor, philosophy, romance, a little bit of everything. People who don't know anything about it will be delighted. Those who know opera, operetta and stage will get all the jokes about music," she said.

Bernstein also said the production's finale is a perfect commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the composer's passing, the 15th anniversary of the Great Hanshin Earthquake and the fifth year since the founding of the Hyogo Performing Arts Center in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture.

Based on a novel of the same name by 18th-century French philosopher Voltaire, Candide revolves around a young man's odyssey. Through many hardships and ordeals, the hero becomes determined to make the world a better place. However, stage productions of Candide are known for their twists and turns, with numerous versions of the music, the script and other aspects having been tried since it first opened on Broadway in 1956. Candide was on Leonard Bernstein's mind throughout his life.

"Part of the reason my father remained so involved with Candide was that there were so many incarnations," said Bernstein, adding that from six to 10 collaborators participated in the entire process that spawned many versions.

The Broadway revivals from 1973 were so different from the original that Lillian Hellman--who provided the book for the first version--withdrew her name, Bernstein explained. The composer liked the 1988 full orchestra Scottish Opera version best, according to his daughter.

"All the music [that was cut in previous versions] was restored," she said. In 1989, the year before his death, Leonard Bernstein personally conducted this version in concert style with the London Symphony Orchestra for a recording.

"He was so excited he was able to conduct it himself. His tempo seemed to get slower and slower as if he never wanted it to end."

This summer's production was previously performed under the direction of Robert Carsen at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris in 2006 in honor of Candide's 50th anniversary. Based on the Scottish Opera version, its setting is a 1950s TV screen, with channel changes between scenes. Voltaire appears as a narrator, singers from Carsen's Paris and London performances take the stage, and the dancing, choreographed by Rob Ashford, and music are weaved together before the audience's eyes.

The original idea behind Candide was to use Voltaire's social satire to parody the United States of the 1950s, where communist witch hunts caused widespread paranoia, Bernstein explains. "My father always kept political satire in mind," she said, although the political slant was largely eliminated from the musical.

But the same message prevails in all versions, she said. "It ends with the wonderful song 'Make our garden grow.' In Voltaire's original, its meaning is more like, 'We must simply tend to our garden. Do something useful in a small context in a small way.'" But Bernstein said her father added more meaning to the ending. The inspirational music seems to be saying, "We must all work together to make the world a better place," she said. "I wonder if Voltaire would have approved [of the inspirational music], because he's a cynic. But it makes a better ending for a musical."

Bernstein is proud that conductor Sado, a student of her father's in his later years, is now growing his own garden at the Nishinomiya theater, cultivating the resident orchestra and producing an opera every summer.

"The young orchestra is everything my father would have hoped to see Yutaka bring to life. Yutaka is making the beautiful garden grow," she said.

Sado, the center's artistic director, recalled the 1989 London performance of Candide.

"[Leonard] Bernstein wasn't in very good health, but I learned how much Candide meant to him. Unlike Westside Story, Candide is a prickly piece with a spicy touch. [Humans] aren't smart, and because of that, we need to try and create a good world," Sado told reporters alongside Bernstein, adding that he hopes to make the best thing in the world with this production.

Bernstein and Sado both follow the spirit of the great composer-conductor and his tradition of the Young People's Concerts. A narrator, writer and broadcaster Jamie Bernstein has written and produced concerts for families and young people under the acclaimed program The Bernstein Beat. "It doesn't matter what age my audience is. Music can get you excited," she said.

Raised in an environment filled with arts and music, Bernstein has fond memories of the Young People's Concerts given by her father. The concerts, which began when she was 5, always mirrored the age group of her and her younger brother and sister.

"My father asked our feedback all the time. We had an influence on the concerts," she recalled, adding that she and her father were obsessed with The Beatles.

"We listened to them on the radio. Our conversation might show up in the next concerts. We added elements to his scripts without realizing," she said.

Here in Japan, a similar spirit is being passed down by Sado, who hosts the long-running TV show Untitled Concert.

Sado recalls his mentor telling him the Young People's Concerts were the greatest achievement of his lifetime.

"Of all his great achievements, I always wondered why he was so proud of [the youth concerts]," Sado said, adding that he understands now how the concerts nurtured so many music lovers.

Now, Sado sees Candide as his mentor's hope for peace.

"Candide contains many contrasting elements, but it shows that in the end, people have things they believe in. The world may not be ideal, and we may not be pure or smart, but that's why we need to hold hands and work together. Candide was something he believed in from the bottom of his heart," he said.

"Candide" will be performed on July 30, 6:30 p.m., July 31, 2 p.m. and Aug. 1, 1 p.m. at Hyogo Performing Arts Center in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture. For tickets, call the venue at (0798) 68-0255. On Aug. 6, 6:30 p.m., Aug. 7, 2 p.m. and Aug. 8, 1 p.m. at Bunkamura Orchard Hall in Shibuya,Tokyo. For tickets,

call Ticket Space at (03) 3234-9999.

(Jul. 30, 2010)