Bradley Cooper’s ‘Maestro’ May Have Been Better Titled ‘Finding the Bernsteins’
The film does a better job of telling the story of the Bernsteins than most of the print biographies. Thankfully, the music is omnipresent.
Some time in the early ’70s, a friend was on his way to visit Leonard Bernstein and his wife Felicia at their New York City apartment in the Dakota. When he got out of the elevator, he was surprised to see “Bernstein necking in the hallways with a beautiful 20-year-old boy.” When the friend entered the apartment, Felicia was sitting there patiently, probably with a cigarette in one hand and a cocktail in the other. “When asked what she was doing, Felicia said she was waiting. ‘I’ve been waiting for Lenny all my life.’”
The anecdote comes from Meryle Secrest’s 1994 biography, “Leonard Bernstein — A Life.” As soon as it was announced that Bradley Cooper was making a biopic about Bernstein, and that it would focus on his relationship with Felicia, I immediately knew that it would be filled with scenes like this. In many ways, Felicia Montealegre Bernstein was the archetypal long-suffering wife, and any portrayal of their marriage would be filled with scenes of her waiting and agonizing, staring at the window and not knowing where her husband was — or, worse, knowing.
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