So, I understand that Candide is supposed to be a satire of sorts, but I was flipping by our local public television station’s “Arts” channel, and saw a clip of Bernstein conducting Jerry Hadley and June Anderson performing “Make Our Garden Grow,” and I just hated it. Two tuxedoed and begowned folks in ridiculously formal hairstyles and makeup howling (howling!) in a formalistic style about making gardens grow. I can’t see how anyone could sit still for this visual and aural assault on the senses. It was just awful, and to the extent that it was satire on the level of the very contrast that I pointed out, it just didn’t work for me. It was just too incongruous.
If they were ‘tuxedoed and begowned’, then it would have been a concert performance rather than a fully staged version.
As far as ‘howling’, I know both Jerry Hadley and June Anderson and I would never have characterized their singing as anything other than beautiful. I’m not sure what your experience of classical singing is like, though your choice of words indicates to me that you haven’t listened to much of it.
Bernstein’s ‘Candide’ is a tough hybrid, and despite all its revisions, it never quite made up its mind as to whether it was a piece of musical theatre or more classical operetta. It requires great comic acting skills; full, rich voices and top notch musicianship. The orchestral part is hugely tricky, and there are a number of places where things are deliberately out of whack - Candide and Cunegonde deliberately sing in canon with one another to signify that while they are saying the words ‘Oh, happy pair! Oh, happy we! It’s very rare how we agree!’, they do not, in fact, agree at all.
All of which is to say that I think it’s an absolute masterpiece and I’m sorry to hear you didn’t like it.
For the record, I suspect this is the performance you heard.
“Make Our Garden Grow” is the last number in the operetta, and it is meant to be (if you’ll pardon the spoiler) a sort of resigned and healing resolution of the farcically disastrous events of the plot.
If you’re expecting to get a sense of the satirical impact of Candide from watching this one duet—especially, as Le Ministre pointed out, in a concert version—then yes, you’re very likely to be disappointed. (Especially if you’re imagining that the satirical effect is somehow supposed to be based on having two people in formal dress sing about gardening, which is not at all the point.)
“The Best of All Possible Worlds” or “Oh, Happy We” are much better examples of Candide’s overall sardonic style. But it does help to know something about the plot and about the original form of the story in Voltaire’s novel in order to appreciate it fully.
(Who else here first read (parts of) Candide in a somewhat expurgated abridged form for high school French class and wondered what all the ellipses in the love scene were about? ;))
Bernstein the composer was probably better when he wrote for productions that were initially considered to be “fluffy” like “West side Story” and flopped when he tried to make serious statements like “Mass”. The 1989 production of his “Final Revised Production” is pretty good, although I don’t share “Le Ministre de l’au-dela” enthusiasm for the vocal talents of June Anderson. I don’t know how much the OP is aware of Voltaire’s original novel and what he was satirizing but that would be a start. Perhaps after doing this preliminary work and watching the complete thing the OP would appreciate the work more, all in all it is pretty good.
To be clear, it wasn’t the satire that disappointed me. It was the music and performance. I actually love Verdi and Puccini and other opera music, so the classical style of singing isn’t entirely lost on me. However, I suppose the more that that style of singing starts approaching me in a temporal sense, I feel a dissonance or incongruity. Hearing that style of singing in my own vernacular just seems ridiculous to me. Watching Hadley singing the words “We’ll chop our wood and make our garden grow” in that style and with that particular expression on his face make me want to slap him. It’s not opera and it’s not Broadway. It’s a kind of uncanny valley for me.
“Candide” blows chunks. Possibly the worst POS Bernstein ever did.
That’s it!
I agree with Le Ministere that Candide is a masterpiece. It’s probably my favorite piece of musical theater.
I’m not sure why you think you can get a sense of an entire work by listening to just the finale in a concert production.
Auto da Fe (What a Day) gives a much better sense of the overall tone of Candide (although this is not a full production).
Likewise Oh Happy We.
I have always liked that production, Colibri. I think it’s far more exuberant and zany than other pieces and lacks that ponderous “This is OPERA” tone that other versions have. Plus, I just like Chenoweth.
I should thank the OP for prompting me to look for links on Youtube, since I hadn’t seen that production before. I agree Chenoweth is great. I especially like her take on Glitter and Be Gay.
I saw the second half of it on PBS when I was in high school and knew then and there that I needed to own it. When I saw the DVD on sale a few years later, I snapped it up and promptly lost several friends by making them sit through the whole show with me. Me, I love the weird hybridization and how some songs seem straight out of tradional opera and others could be plain ole musical theater. And I hum Auto Da Fe incessantly. ♪Did you see? Yes, I saw. Oh they’ve broken his jaw. Don’t you know we must go? It’s your father-in-law.♫
Plus, I love all the little touches they threw in like Candide clutching a copy of West Side Story. during It Must Be So, all of Kristin’s little ad-libs and of course, “Vave your arms!”
OK, so you should never watch translated versions of The Merry Widow or The Bat. You’re making me grateful that my own native language has genres which are neither opera nor “Broadway”, as well as operas and operettas written in it. For me, there’s no uncanny valley there.
If that’s your reference, it’s sort of like forming your opinion of Cats from hearing Streisand sing Memory in a formal gown in front of a mike in concert.
I’m not sure what your point is. What I saw I disliked. Why would they perform it like that if they didn’t mean for it to be experienced like that?
I’m not really sure what the point of your OP is. You appear to making some general inferences about the operetta (“I understand it is supposed to be satire of sorts”) based on a performance of a single excerpt in a different format than the work itself. Perhaps you were merely commenting on that single performance (which in itself was not satire).
The lyrics of classical operas aren’t necessarily any more esoteric than the lyrics of Make Our Garden Grow. Your sense of incongruity may mostly be due to the fact that you understood the lyrics. 
I mentioned that I understood that it was supposed to be satire to forestall this conversation:
“I didn’t like it.”
“You don’t get it. It’s satire.”
Of course my judgment is about the performance I saw. What else could it be? But the composition and music is undoubtedly the work, or a work, intended by the composer, the conductor, and the performers. Why shouldn’t it be judged on that basis?
Like I said, your OP seemed to imply that you were making some judgement on the work as a whole based on this single performance. Evidently you were not.
In answer to the OP, I have no idea why you took such a strong dislike to this particular performance. It seemed quite good to me, and did not in the least resemble “howling.” It’s mysterious to me why hearing operatic style singing in English would cause you such intense revulsion.
Italians, Germans, and the French are accustomed to hearing that style of singing in their own vernacular. I guess that it’s unfortunate that there are not more classical style works in English. If there were, perhaps you wouldn’t find it so strange.
I saw the so-called “Chelsea” version on Broadway in 1975, and it was excellent. I understand the staging for that version was unique - the main stage in the center of the audience, with action taking place in front of, in the midst of, and behind the audience. Wonderfully done.
I don’t know the music well enough to have a favorite, but the opening of What a Day has stuck with me over the years: “What a day! What a day! For an Auto-da-fe! What a sunny summer sky!”
Everyone here DOES know that Cunegonde’s aria “Glitter and be Gay” was the theme music for the Dick Cavett show?
The OP reminds me of people who say they hate Shakespeare because of being forced to read it in English or Literature class. Of COURSE it sucks that way for some people - it wasn’t MEANT to be read, it was meant to be SEEN and HEARD.
Same with Candide - It wasn’t meant to be done standing in a tuxedo in front of an orchestra - it was a theatrical performance - sets, costumes, people doing accents (sometimes badly 
) - all the stuff that makes live theatre a joy. This version of “Make Our Garden Grow” (also referenced by Inner Stickler) may be a little more to the OP’s taste, Folks are in costume instead of formal wear, but it is still done in front of an orchestra.
Unfortunately for Candide, it has gained a much wider acceptance as an orchestral/choral piece than it has as a piece of theatre. I think performances such as the one I linked to are the best compromise - you get the grandeur of the orchestra, yet still get the theatricality of the piece as well, as they include acting bits with costumes and staging, as opposed to just standing and singing the songs. (I would also advice either getting the DVD or at least watching the whole thing on YouTube - it’s there.)