Why did Leonard Bernstein put Candide to Music?
The 1950’s were a difficult time for anyone considered “left-leaning” in the United States. Senator Joseph McCarthy was the self-appointed commie cleanser of America. McCarthyism was rampant and all artists, composers, actors, writers, and painters were suspect. Many were being called before the House Un-American Affairs Committee (HUAC) to be bullied into confessing to be a communist and to denounce others, whether justifiably or not (which was most of the time). Bernstein was encouraged by Lillian Hellman. Hellman was one of the relatively few writers who stood up to McCarthy and HUAC. She encouraged her friend Leonard Bernstein to set Voltaire’s Candide to music. Just as Voltaire spoke out against the ideology and inquisitions of his day, someone had to stand up against the ideology and inquisition in post-war America. As Bernstein wrote in the New York Times: …the matters with which it is concerned are as valid for us in America, with its puritanical snobbery, phony moralism, inq
