Barbara Cook, Who Originated The Role Of Cunigonde In Bernstein’s Candide And Reinvented Herself Decades Later, Has Retired At Age 89

Her son conveyed the news to The New York Times to forestall speculation. “She defied so much for so long: depression, alcoholism, age. Mr. LeGrant said, on the phone and over lunch a couple of days later, that she had decided to put out the word about retirement. ‘The public hasn’t seen her in months,’ he said, ‘and somebody would go ‘Oh, my God,’ and it would be on Page Six.'”