Soloist - Shannon Kessler Dooley

"Glitter and Be Gay" is one of Bernstein’s most famous compositions taken from the operetta, Candide. The aria is one of the most difficult works to ever be written for the theater, and is a show-stopping coloratura solo in which the character describes how she has been "forced to bend my soul to a sordid role" of being the caged slave of the Grand Inquisitor and Don Issachar. The character switches back and forth between her disgust at her situation and her temptation at the jewelry, furs, and champagne that come with her new status.