Wait, this is the way in which a personage no less than Leonard Bernstein has chosen to present this work and yet it’s experience it in the wrong way? That seems on its face unsupportable.
Furthermore, it’s completely legitimate for me to judge the work as it is presented, as a musical work, featuring the performance of singers with music in combination with lyrics. It is in that form that I disliked it. It sucks as a song, in my opinion.
I’m sure that if Bernstein and everyone else involved with the production had realized that you, personally, were going to dislike it so much they would have done otherwise. It’s a pity you were not consulted beforehand. 
Of course it’s immaterial that a large number of people find this performance highly enjoyable.
Your opinion is very much an outlier. The Youtube link shows 351 “likes” and 5 “dislikes” for that clip.
Some of the comments:
And so on.
I’m glad that’s a comfort to you. Michael Bolton and Kenny G have also sold a lot of records.
And, for the record, I’ve always enjoyed reading Shakespeare, even in high school.
Not at all. It’s just that you seem to believe that your opinion of this performance actually indicates something about its quality, to the extent of questioning why Bernstein chose to do it that way.
More than any recording of Candide, I’m sure. 
Do you like Bernstein’s version of Shakespeare?
No, I was told by someone else that I was watching the wrong kind of performance of it. I’m accepting that Bernstein’s decision indicates that he, at least, thinks this is an adequate way of doing it.
West Side Story? It’s not my cup of tea, but it doesn’t engender a visceral revulsion in me.
He and a lot of other people.
What do you think of the version of that song linked to in post #20 by lawoot?
Well, I’ll weigh in on Ascenray’s side. I’ve seen the performance with Chenoweth, and I loved Chenoweth, and I can’t say I dislike Candide exactly, I just… don’t really enjoy it as much as I think I’m supposed to. It’s trying too hard, I feel, to be funny and do its satire thing and at the same time end with some real emotion, and it just feels to me like it’s trying to do so much that it doesn’t really succeed totally in doing any of it.
I do like operas in English very much (one of my favorite operas ever is Ballad of Baby Doe) and I like West Side Story. There’s just something about Candide, in particular, that doesn’t grab me… perhaps I don’t find opera a good medium for heavy-handed satire. (I do completely adore G&S and Marriage of Figaro, so clearly light-handed satire is okay with me 
)
I think the same thing about Sondheim (I appreciate a good performance, but I don’t really like it, again, I think, because it’s trying to be cutting and sarcastic but also with a degree of pathos, and it just doesn’t all work for me). ducks Ascenray, what do you think of Sondheim?
ETA: Some of it may also be the source text. I tried reading Candide twice and failed miserably both times.
It appears that Acsenray is not commenting on Candide as such, but rather on one single performance of one single number.
You have to remember that this performance was not the premiere of the work - it was a later production (33 years later!), and mostly the songs, not the action that happened between the songs. (Even the version I linked to above is much like this, with much of the action being replaced with narration) In other words, this was a concert, NOT a PLAY. MANY composers have their music performed in concert format, even Sondheim and Lloyd Webber. Bernstein was unusual, as he was also a world-class conductor, so why NOT conduct your own piece in concert? That way you make sure the music is performed to your standards, not someone else’s.
My point is that it is valid to judge the work by the performance as it is presented on its face. If it is a performance of the song, then it’s valid to judge that song qua song.
Yeah, and I’ll say I don’t much like the song “Let Your Garden Grow” (which I’ve heard both in concert (in fact, I’ve sung in the choir for this song in concert) and as part of the entire performance). I did vaguely know the backstory of Candide before I heard it, though, which may have been part of my dislike (since, as I said before, not a huge fan of opera heavy satire). I mean, I realize I’m in the minority – this isn’t the only thing I don’t like that everyone else in the world (except Ascenray) seems to like.
ETA: Whereas, “Dearest Mama” from Ballad of Baby Doe? I heard that performed in a recital amidst a bunch of other random songs, totally out of context, had never heard of the opera before, and the next day I went out and got the recording because I was so captivated by the song. So yeah, I think Ascenray has a point that you should be able to judge songs out of context as songs (although he should probably have been a little more specific and said he didn’t like “Let Your Garden Grow” rather than Candide itself). I mean, lots of people like “Nessun Dorma” without having a clue about Turandot, right?
Sure, and you’re free to dislike that song as a song. The point is, though, that your OP was complaining primarily and specifically about this particular song not succeeding as satire, and what’s up with that because isn’t Candide supposed to be satirical, huh?
What other posters have been trying to explain to you is that you can’t really judge the satirical effect of the operetta as a whole from the single number “Make Our Garden Grow” (especially in a non-staged concert performance). Because that particular number isn’t particularly satirical in tone.
This shouldn’t be so hard to grasp. After all, there are lively comic musicals with one or two slow sad songs in them, and operatic tragedies with occasional comic arias, right? So I don’t see why it puzzles you all that much to be told that Candide is a satirical operetta but its closing number “Make Our Garden Grow” isn’t a very satirical song.
Of course you are welcome to judge a particular performance of a particular song on its own merits. But it’s kind of silly to extrapolate from this specific reaction a judgement on the merits of the operetta as a whole, as your thread title implies.
As I have explained at least once before, the only reason I mentioned satire was to forestall the “you don’t get it; it’s satire” replies. My OP most assuredly did not criticize it in the basis of its being satire, but in the basis that it sucked as a song as performed.
Then why is your thread title asking about why you hated “Candide, the operetta”?
ISTM that if all you wanted to say was that you disliked the concert performance of this particular song that you happened to see, and if you weren’t interested in any discussion of the characteristics of the song in relation to the rest of the operetta, nor in any discussion of the characteristics of the operetta as a whole…
…then, to put it gently, you over-posted.
So let’s try again. What is it about “Candide, the operetta”, that you would like to discuss here?
Or is there nothing you want to talk about beyond saying “This performance of this song sucked” and dismissing any objections from people who disagree with you?