Candide
Welsh National Opera, Cardiff
★★★★★

BONKERS, brilliant, funny and deeply disturbing are just some of the adjectives to describe Welsh National Opera’s production of Candide. This is a riotous production which mixes dazzling animation with dancers, singers and a deeply disturbing story that should outrage the audience, but which has us in fits of laughter.

Renowned US composer Leonard Bernstein wrote his operetta, Candide, in the 1950s to bring to life French philosopher Voltaire’s novel. Bernstein was writing at the height of Senator Joe McCarthy’s communist witch-hunt, which had radical folk like Bernstein investigated for un-American activity.

Voltaire introduced us to Pangloss, a character who espouses a philosophy that all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds. Voltaire’s Pangloss is a satire of philosopher Gottfried Leibniz, who believed that God created the world and that every catastrophic event is for the best.

This is tested to destruction in Bernstein’s Candide with director James Bonas’s creative vision, helped by the glorious illustrations of French video and animations specialist Gregoire Pont.

We are introduced and helped throughout the production by Cardiff actor Rakie Ayola, who is a funny and acerbic narrator, and also sings Pangloss. Ed Lyon is an assured Candide who falls in love with Soraya Mafi’s Cunegonde, but this is no ordinary love story.

Candide is a bastard, and when the Baron, sung here by Howard Kirk, finds his daughter in the arms of the illegitimate Candide, he throws him out of the household and banishes him. But then war breaks out, and the Baron and his wife are killed while Cunegonde is told she is to be raped repeatedly and then bayonetted to death. But the way this is done and her expressive response of “fuck” has the audience in hysterical laughter, instead of outrage at what is to befall the heroine.

And that is how the production continues, with Candide meeting up with Pangloss, who sports a tin nose in the chaos of war. It turns out that Pangloss has syphilis and his nose has rotted away, but when his former pupil expresses sympathy, the philosopher says syphilis came from the New World, where we also found potatoes, chocolate and tobacco, so it's all for the best. “I love potatoes,” replies Candide, and we are off to the next Monty Pythonesque scene.

And it is the moving around from one improbable adventure to the next that is aided by the stunning animation. In one scene, three characters are to ride an elongated horse, and a hand comes down and stretches the horse’s body long enough for the journey. As it clip-clops across the stage, two dancers follow behind with coconut halves to make the noise.

Bonkers but engaging, and an evening which will amuse you but make you think about the chaotic world we live in.

On tour until October 17. Tickets and venue details: wno.org.uk.