Bradley Cooper has made a movie based on the life of conductor/composer Leonard Bernstein and his wife the actress Felicia Montealegre. Cooper, who also co-wrote and directed the film, has taken the greatest pains to make the two protagonists seem identical to the duo they portray. Cooper has so gotten into the Bernstein character that he conducts the last six minutes of the Mahler Symphony #2 (The Ressurection Symphony) with the London Symphony Orchestra in the 14th century Ely Cathedral the site of Bernstein’s celebrated 1973 performance of Mahler’s epic work.
Bernstein was a cultural colossus from the middle of the 20th century until his death in 1990. Many of his views on social and political issues engendered considerable controversy. The residue of these positions seems to have influenced some of the negative reactions to Cooper’s film. This response is unfortunate as Bernstein’s sometimes naive or pompous stands on non-musical subjects are completely absent from the movie.
Maestro’s arc is the complicated love between a great musician and a very talented actress that lasts until her death. The marriage produces three children but is tested almost to the breaking point by Bernstein’s numerous homosexual dalliances. The film suggests that Montealegre knew about Bernstein’s homosexuality before their marriage, but was so taken by him that she chose to marry him anyway. Despite his extramarital excursions, Bernstein, as depicted in the movie, deeply loves his wife and is very devoted to her. Her death from cancer at age 56 is a crushing blow. The story is basically that of the family life of a musical titan. The other dimensions of Bernstein’s life are omitted. Felicia is in constant struggle not with another woman, but with a succession of good-looking young men that Lenny hooks up as easily as he lights the next cigarette. There’s one in his mouth in almost every scene in which he’s not in front of an orchestra.
Clocking in at more than two hours Maestro manages to engage and hold the viewer’s attention through the excellence of its actors, especially Carey Mulligan as Felicia and Cooper in the title role, and the vivid depiction of Bernstein’s private life set against the background of his ascendency to the top of the world of classical music and opera, though Bernstein’s extensive operatic career receives no mention in this movie.
There are a few minor quibbles. I found the transition from black and white film to color distracting. I’ve never been keen on this self-conscious photography. Oppenheimer used the same technique also, in my view, without any artistic reason. The first third of the movie is in black and white. It depicts Bernstein’s sudden rise to fame when he conducted (without a rehearsal) a New York Philharmonic concert broadcast nationally. He was a last-minute replacement for Bruno Walther who had suddenly taken ill. The monochrome segment also depicts the courtship of Felicia and Lenny. It contains a lot of retrospective exposition filling in the viewer with the Jewish backgrounds of both protagonists as well as the essential facts of Bernstein’s early life. It’s the only part of the film that has a bit of wooden dialogue. Artificiality disappears with the appearance of color.
Cooper has Bernstein down to the last wrinkle. His use of a prosthetic nose has received much notice, much of it unfavorable. I approached the film fearful of encountering Cyrano de Bergerac or Jimmy Durante, but once into the show I could mostly ignore the schnoz and concentrate on Lenny. I think it added more than it took away.
Another great talent possessed by Bernstein was as a teacher. He was unmatched in his ability to dissect great music such that its constituent parts were revealed and the reasons for its greatness were apparent even to the greenest neophyte. At the same time, a musical sophisticate could learn much from Lenny’s exegesis. This part of his career was also ignored by the film.
Maestro is the tale of a great musician’s domestic life. It is told with great skill and should capture the attention of anyone interested in the confluence of life and art. The viewer may come away with a distorted ranking of Leonard Benrstein’s position in American art. He was a major figure whose position was one of enormous talent, but he was not a genius. Alas, American music has had only one composer of genius – George Gershwin. And he died before that genius could be fully realized. As a conductor, Bernstein was at the top of the baton-wielding list, but there were a handful of other conductors who could match or exceed him. A movie about their lives would, however, not be as interesting as Maestro.
If you have a Netflix subscription, Maestro should definitely be at the top of your watch list.
Cast:
Carey Mulligan…………………………………. Felicia Montealegre
Bradley Cooper………………………………… Leonard Bernstein
Matt Bomer……………………………………….. David Oppenheim
Vincenzo Amato…………………………………Bruno Zirato
Greg Hildreth………………………………………Isaac
Michael Urie………………………………………..Jerry Robbins
Brian Klugman…………………………………….Aaron Copland
Nick Blaemire………………………………………Adolph Green
Mallory Portnoy………………………………….Betty Comden
Sarah Silverman………………………………….Shirley Bernstein
Yasen Peyankov…………………………………..Serge Koussevitzky
Zachary Booth……………………………………..Mendy Wager
Miriam Shor…………………………………………Cynthia O’Neal
Maya Hawke………………………………………..Jamie Bernstein
Gideon Glick………………………………………..Tommy Cothran
Josh Hamilton……………………………………..John Gruen
June Gable……………………………………………Old Lady
Alexa Swinton……………………………………..Nina Bernstein
As Rosa Ponselle’s biographer I interviewed Bernstein, who began by saying that his hearing her Victor acoustical recording of “Suicidio” had been “a revelation and a turning point in my life,” to quote him directly. I had expected a brief interview, considering the demands upon his time—but an hour later he was still comparing Ponselle’s voice and artistry with every soprano he had conducted in her repertoire. He recounted being at a party to which Ponselle, then long retired, had attended and had sung impromptu, with him at the piano, “Ritorna vincitor!” He told me emphatically, “After I heard Rosa Ponselle, if you want to talk about dramatic sopranos, don’t talk to me about anybody else. Talk to me about her.” Regarding the film, I look forward to seeing it, and am curious whether the actor portraying Bruno Zirato is six-feet-six and whether Mrs. Zirato, the elfin coloratura Nina Morgana, is at least mentioned because in my interview with him, Bernstein expressed his affection for her and said that his daughter was named after her.
The actor who plays Bruno Zirato, Caruso’s personal secretary before his association with the NY Phil, is closer to 5-6 than 6-6. No mention of his wife Nina Morgana.