“Italy had its renaissance, Germany its reformation, France had Voltaire”, the historian Will Durant once commented. Born François-Marie Arouet, Voltaire (1694-1778) was known in his lifetime as the ...

Reading is one of my passions. I like books that make me think. Voltaire’s Candide is one of those exceptional novels that work on the reader’s sensibilities. "‘The most useful books," he wrote, "are ...

Any opera set inside a massive circus tent boasting confetti cannons, a woman with one buttock and an eternally optimistic philosopher being hanged up by the neck cannot be classified as stuffy or dry ...

oltaire’s 17 th century Candide ou l’Optimisme (Candide: Optimism) is not merely a hallmark of the Enlightenment Age and holds as much relevance today as it did then, as it serves as a guide to more ...

Leonard Bernstein's 1956 operetta "Candide," like Voltaire's novel on which it is based, is a sparklingly witty satire on grim themes including barbarity, religious intolerance and mankind's ...

A brilliantly reimagined and boldly immersive promenade performance, complete with flashmob choir, plays to the strengths of Leonard Bernstein’s witty operetta At the time of year when Edinburgh is ...

Julian Barnes pays tribute to Voltaire's Candide, a satire that remains as fresh and pertinent today as when it was written in the 18th century The acknowledged classics of French literature crossed ...