Working with Bernstein on this concert version of Candide, none of us imagined for a moment that this was going to be his last show: our only comfort now is that Lenny himself believed he had got it right at last. As he explains in the course of the performance, Candide spanned 35 years of his life, beginning with Lillian Hellman"s original libretto, directed for Broadway by Tyrone Guthrie in 1956, through Hal Prince"s very successful production in 1973 with a new book by Hugh Wheeler, and the "opera house version" in 1982. Bernstein remained unsatisfied. The present score is based on the Scottish Opera production, organized by John Mauceri, which I adapted and co-directed with Jonathan Miller in 1988. From our first discussions it became clear that what LB. wanted was more Voltaire. He wanted Candide to sing his lament over Cunegonde"s body, finding her on the battlefield as he does in the original book. He wanted more of Voltaire"s original text, and he wanted most of all to incorporate the Chorale, with its final restatement at the end of the evening of Voltaire"s essential message.