Scott Bakula is swapping time travel for 18th-century satire. The actor best known for leaping through decades on television will make his LA Opera debut this fall in Leonard Bernstein's Candide, taking on the dual role of Voltaire and Dr. Pangloss alongside Patti LuPone, with six performances set for the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion between November 21 and December 13.
A Stage Return With Opera Royalty
As reported by Deadline, Bakula will make his LA Opera debut this fall in the production, taking the dual role of Voltaire and Dr. Pangloss. The company's own production page describes the part as Voltaire and the “hilariously misguided” Dr. Pangloss, per LA Opera's listing for the show.
He won't be carrying the show alone. The cast also features Patti LuPone, tenor Duke Kim and soprano Meghan Picerno, the company's production page notes. Deadline's report specifies that Kim takes the title role of Candide while Picerno plays Cunegonde, and that LuPone is reprising her celebrated 2004 performance as the Old Lady — a role seed reporting from MyNewsLA.com confirms she returns to at LA Opera, having previously appeared with the company in Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny and The Ghosts of Versailles. LuPone has won three Tony Awards, per that same reporting, while Picerno is set to make her own LA Opera debut, having appeared on Broadway as Christine Daaé in The Phantom of the Opera. Kim, meanwhile, has previously performed with LA Opera in Roméo et Juliette and West Side Story.
Koelsch Praises Bakula's Range
LA Opera President and CEO Christopher Koelsch framed the casting as a natural fit for the company, according to MyNewsLA.com's reporting. Koelsch said Bakula's career “has moved effortlessly between” theater, television, film and music, adding, “we’re thrilled to welcome him to LA Opera.”
Bakula's theater credentials stretch back decades. He made his Broadway debut in 1983 starring as Joe DiMaggio in Marilyn: An American Fable, Deadline reports, and in 1988 he received a Tony Award nomination for starring in Romance/Romance. MyNewsLA.com's account adds that he has also performed in Man of La Mancha, Guys and Dolls, and Three Guys Naked From the Waist Down, and appeared opposite Ariana DeBose in an off-Broadway production of The Baker's Wife.
From Sam Beckett to Captain Archer
Television audiences know Bakula best for a string of leading roles. He's best known for his TV roles in Quantum Leap, NCIS: New Orleans, Star Trek: Enterprise and Men of a Certain Age, according to Deadline's report. Per MyNewsLA.com, he portrayed time-traveling physicist Sam Beckett in Quantum Leap — a role that earned him a Golden Globe Award and four Emmy nominations — before going on to play Capt. Jonathan Archer in Star Trek: Enterprise, Special Agent Dwayne Pride in NCIS: New Orleans, and Terry Elliott in Men of a Certain Age. He also received an Emmy nomination for the HBO film Behind the Candelabra and appeared in American Beauty and The Informant!, that reporting notes.
What to Expect From the Production
Candide is based on Voltaire's 1759 satirical novel, according to LA Opera's production page, and follows a young man whose optimistic worldview is challenged by misfortune while he searches for Cunegonde. The score is by Leonard Bernstein with a book by Hugh Wheeler, adapted from Voltaire's novel in a new version by John Caird, per the same listing, and includes musical numbers such as “Glitter and Be Gay” and “Make Our Garden Grow.” LA Opera first presented this particular production in 2018, and it returns under the direction of Francesca Zambello.
LA Opera Resident Conductor Lina González-Granados will lead the company's orchestra and chorus for the run, according to Deadline's report. The production is a co-production of the Glimmerglass Festival, Opéra National de Bordeaux and Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, LA Opera's page states, and will be sung in English with projected subtitles, running approximately two hours and 30 minutes including one intermission.
Performances are scheduled at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, located at 135 N. Grand Ave. in Los Angeles, with curtain times at 7:30 p.m. on November 21, December 2, December 5 and December 10, and 2 p.m. matinees on November 29 and December 13, according to MyNewsLA.com's listing. LA Opera directs audiences to laopera.org/candide for additional information.
