Next, a lyrical contrast from the duet 'Oh Happy We' is stated. This, in the body of the show, becomes 'battle scene' music. This seventh sets up an expectation of B-flat major but, instead, there is a stumbling, like a pratfall, into E-flat. It begins with a fanfare built on the interval of a minor seventh, followed by a major second-typically Bernstein, which serves as a motto and as a basis for development, throughout the entire operetta.
This is immediately apparent in the Overture (who ever wrote a special overture-in sonata form, no less-for a musical comedy?).
Its music has all the wit, élan, and sophistication that is associated with that genre. Candide (1956) is operetta in the vein of Offenbach and Gilbert and Sullivan.
