Why Bernstein's McCarthy-era comic opera 'Candide' resonates today

11:05

June 21, 2022

American composer, conductor and pianist Leonard Bernstein conducting, circa 1975. (Erich Auerbach/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Editor's note: This segment was rebroadcast on July 13, 2022. Find that audio here.

Got congressional hearings on your mind, with Jan. 6 hearings underway and historians recalling the Watergate hearings nearly 50 years ago?

Here & Now's classical music critic Fran Hoepfner joins host Robin Young to discuss how Sen. Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist hearings in 1954 inspired Leonard Bernstein's 1956 comic opera "Candide," about an idealistic young man's clash with harsh reality.

This segment aired on June 21, 2022.