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2025

February

Thu
20 Feb 2025

Sat
22 Feb 2025

Wed
26 Feb 2025

March

Sat
01 Mar 2025

Thu
06 Mar 2025

Sat
08 Mar 2025

Tue
11 Mar 2025

Fri
14 Mar 2025
Venue

Joan Sutherland Theatre, Sydney Opera House
Bennelong Point, Sydney

Language

Performed in English.

Running time

Approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes, including one interval.

Please note

This production contains mature content, depictions of hanging and flogging, atmospheric haze, strobe lightning effects, loud thunder, and simulated explosion sounds.

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Come on a wild and witty journey through the best of all possible worlds.

Life is happiness, indeed. Or so believes Candide at the start of his great adventure through a world gone mad. By the end? Just wait and see.

Candide is a brilliant satire about humankind’s capacity for mindless optimism, set to a remarkable score by famed West Side Story composer Leonard Bernstein.

Bernstein’s genius is on full display: from the exuberant overture (a favourite of concert orchestras around the world), to the soprano showpiece ‘Glitter and Be Gay’ and the touching choral finale ‘Make Our Garden Grow’.

This new staging by award-winning director Dean Bryant was a smash hit upon its Melbourne premiere in 2024, with critics declaring it “the best of all possible productions” (Australian Book Review).

Musical theatre renaissance man Eddie Perfect and the star of Hamilton Lyndon Watts reprise their roles in a production that delivers both first-rate comedy and the symphonic magic of Bernstein’s score.

Since its premiere, Candide has defied classification — it’s played seasons on Broadway but has been embraced by many of the world’s great opera houses as part of the canon. Is it operetta or musical theatre? Whatever the case, it has some of the best music and most rollicking adventures you’ll see in any theatre.

Candide - Victorian Opera (2024)

Photographer: Charlie Kinross

Candide - Victorian Opera (2024)

Photographer: Charlie Kinross

Candide - Victorian Opera (2024)

Photographer: Charlie Kinross

Candide - Victorian Opera (2024)

Photographer: Charlie Kinross

Candide - Victorian Opera (2024)

Photographer: Charlie Kinross

Candide - Victorian Opera (2024)

Photographer: Charlie Kinross


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Cast & Creative

Conductor
Director
Set & Costume Designer
Dann Barber
Lighting Designer
Choreographer
Freya List
Voltaire / Pangloss
Candide
Cunegonde
Old Lady
Maximilian
Paquette
Cacambo
Governor/ Vanderdendur
Martin

Opera Australia Orchestra
Opera Australia Chorus

Cheat Sheet: Candide

A cheat's guide to Bernstein's glittering Broadway operetta.

What happens in the story? Who was the composer? What should I expect from the music? Here’s everything you need to know…

Read the cheat sheet