Composer-conductor Leonard Bernstein was one of the most important musicians of his time, receiving many accolades—the Kennedy Center Honor among them, in 1981—before passing away in 1990. Behind the scenes, Bernstein was having a 25-year unconventional relationship with with his wife, Costa Rican actress/musician/artist Felicia Montealegre. Bernstein, who was bisexual, had regular relationships with men.
Netflix pulls back the public curtain to reveal an account of Bernstein's private life as he rises to fame in the feature film Maestro, which is now in theaters but premieres on the streamer Wednesday, Dec. 20.
A complex love story
Bernstein and Montealegre's marriage was nothing like the romance that Bernstein evoked in work such as West Side Story. Their relationship instead speaks more about identity and the constraints upon LGBTQ+ people during the composer's lifetime.
While the film could have been a cautionary story about infidelity, it is instead a celebration of the music and legacy that Bernstein left behind. It became a passion project for Bradley Cooper who served as lead actor, director, writer and producer. The project was stacked with talent from its inception, with big-name producers such as Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Todd Philips.
At a Los Angeles press conference, Cooper recalled, "I spoke to Steven Spielberg, who was in charge of it at that time, and asked if could take it on. I started researching and figuring out what story I could tell. It was about the relationship between these two wonderful characters named Leonard and Felicia. I was looking for nuclear power like in A Star is Born. For that, it was Gaga's voice and for this, it was Leonard Bernstein's music."
Carey Mulligan plays Montealegre. She and Cooper had previously met while working on the narration for Candide together at the Kimmel Center for Performing Arts in 2019.
Mulligan told Windy City Times, "One of my attractions to the part is that she doesn't follow the classic trophy wife trope. There were letters where she wanted to make a life with him, and it was clear from the beginning about her expectations.There was an agreement that there would be discretion and it wasn't about sexual infidelity. Steven Spielberg described this to Bradley as 'Lenny becoming her art and a masterpiece.'
"The moment he begins looking to another person for comfort and reaches out for another person's hand is the moment of betrayal. It was her hand every time before that for years and in that scene, it was [lover Tommy Cothran's] hand. That is the moment that breaks her."
Oscar-winning screenwriter Josh Singer co-wrote Maestro with Cooper and mentioned the love-letter in a separate interview in New York.
"When Bradley signed on he wanted to make the story about the marriage and Bernstein's need for family," Singer said. "There's a letter that Felicia wrote that said, 'I know you are a homosexual and may never change, but let's see what happens if you are free to do as you like without guilt or confession, please. Let's give it a whirl!' It was an extraordinary way of securing him in the family and giving him freedom at the same time. That felt incredibly modern to me."
Canadian music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who coached Cooper's conducting in the film, was in the room and agreed, "I worship Lenny as an icon of conducting and as an openly gay man I connected with that part of the story. The movie is about showing his open heart to the world and his love for other people, including Felicia. People tried to put him in a box to say his marriage was fake. No, it was a true love story. There was a commitment from Bradley and everyone else to tell the story as it was."
Two out-and-proud performers, Michael Urie, who portrays choreographer Jerome Robbins, and Matt Bomer, who plays lover David Oppenheim, also appear in Maestro.
A family's embrace
Bernstein and Montealegre's three children—Jamie Bernstein, Alexander Bernstein and Nina Maria Felicia Bernstein—met for an exclusive interview with Windy City Times following the North American premiere at the New York Film Festival this past October. Alexander said the humor was the hardest thing to capture of his father's life, "I think Cooper does well with that, and our father was very funny."
His sister Jamie added, "We were hoping Bradley would be able to convey that and he did. He didn't exactly imitate the way our father was funny but found a way to show his essence. I thought it worked great!"
When asked about other family members being open to exposing queer aspects of their father's life publicly in the movie, Jamie confessed, "It was really complicated, and it was a while back when their marriage started feeling the pressures of our dad's bisexuality. It was not a simple thing to be out at that time, and it was right at the cusp when people were starting to express that part of themselves.
For us, it was also very complicated. When I wrote my memoir in 2018, I talked about this whole issue, and had Alexander and Nina read it. They had total veto power over everything before it was published, and they supported it. The three of us believe in telling things the way we experienced them, and did not shy away from anything."
Alexander continued, "My grandmother was alive in the '70s and my dad just couldn't come out then. He would call her every Friday wherever he was in the world though."
The trio made the point of stating that Leonard's mother outlived him and Nina speculated, "She probably realized what was the truth, but as far as we know, he never came out and said the words."
Finding the maestro's rhythms
Maestro's script reveals Bernstein's male relationships from the beginning, and the family wouldn't have had it any other way. Alexander exclaimed, "There's no way that a straight story would have happened. This was him in every way!"
Singer said, "Bradley had such a clear vision of what this was about. This is a story about marriage and a modern family. From the first new script we developed together to the final film, the spine of the film was always clear."
Singer went on to talk about Cooper's process, "He will try everything, and just like there were hundreds of iterations of the script, there were that many iterations in [post-production]. He was searching for rhythm, and there is a unique rhythm to this film that feels musical, not only in the music of Lenny, but [in] the way the film flows."
One thing Alexander hopes audiences will take away from the feature film is the music surrounding the personal story. Jamie said, "There's so much of his music in the film and we hope audiences will want to hear more. We are the biggest fans of his music!"
This year has been a strong one for Netflix films surrounding LGBTQ+-themed stories such as Rustin and Nyad. And now Maestro finishes out 2023 with symphonic music made for queer ears.
Maestro streams on Netflix beginning Wednesday, Dec. 20.
