By Eric George Tauber
CINCINNATI, Ohio — Leonard Bernstein is a world-renowned musical genius best known for his Broadway musical scores for On the Town, Wonderful Town and West Side Story. Also a great classical conductor, Bernstein conducted Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony to mark the death of President Kennedy. He gave a concert on Israel’s Mount Scopus after the Six-Day War of 1967, and celebrated the fall of the Berlin Wall with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
Interestingly, Bernstein never regarded his Broadway scores as “serious music.” It paid the bills. However, songs like America and New York, New York get a lot more toes tapping than his Chichester Psalms.
Maestro, a biopic of Bernstein’s life is currently streaming on Netflix. Bradley Cooper, who directed and co-wrote the film, stars in the title role.
The story begins with Lenny’s big break. He was the Assistant Conductor of the New York Philharmonic when, just before a concert at Carnegie Hall that was broadcast live on the radio, the conductor took ill. They had zero rehearsals together, but the depth of his knowledge and passion for the music shone through. After that, folks in the industry knew his name and he was a hot-ticket item.
From the night Bernstein met Felicia Montealegre Cohn, he was smitten. Portrayed by Carrie Mulligan, Felicia is attractive, romantic, spontaneous, clever, and quite charming. She’s not afraid to speak her mind, yet she also knows the art of tact. There’s just one catch: men were no strangers to Bernstein’s bed either. Nowadays, he could march proudly in a parade. However, in those days, such a scandal destroyed careers.
Felicia knew, yet loved him all the same and it was she who popped the question. Cooper takes a love-letter written by Felicia and sets it as a romantic face-to-face encounter in a labyrinthine garden. In it, she says, “I already know who you are. So, let’s give it a whirl.” After a while, Bernstein’s proclivities take their toll. Rumors swirl and, in a moment of anger, Felicia warns him that he’s “going to die a lonely old queen.”
The movie flows from scene to scene in seamless transitions, from brunch with friends to big song and dance numbers. Their youth is in black and white, then shifts to color in the 1970s. It’s a stroll through the surreal that’s a delight to travel.
There was some controversy over the prosthetics. Bradley Cooper used latex to make his nose look like Bernstein’s, which some perceived as an antisemitic trope. I would agree if they had exaggerated the nose. This was historically done with roles like Shakespeare’s Shylock and Marlowe’s Jew of Malta. However, Bernstein really looked the way he is portrayed. When you compare pictures of Cooper’s Bernstein with the real thing, it’s hard to tell them apart. Moreover, the job of any actor is to get as close to their subject as they can. To this end, actors employ many tools including makeup, wigs, latex, bald caps, fat suits… whatever we need to make our characters real to the audience.
If you are a fan of Bernstein’s music and would like a deeper look into his soul, Maestro provides that window. All you have to do is open it. Bradley Cooper’s Maestro is currently streaming on Netflix.
And that’s Show-Biz!
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Eric George Tauber is a former San Diegan who has returned to his hometown of Cincinnati, where he is an actor and a freelance writer. He may be contacted via eric.tauber@sdjewishworld.com