Bradley Cooper’s Maestro centers on legendary American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein. The film focuses on some of the grandest achievements throughout Bernstein’s career as well as his lesser-known personal matters pertaining to his relationship with his wife, Felicia Montealegre. While some parts of the relationship between Cooper’s Bernstein and Carey Mulligan’s Montealegre are nuanced and complex in Maestro, the connection between the two real-life figures is built on the simple chemistry and adoration they have for each other. Their marriage, while essentially built on the unsteady foundation of Bernstein’s closeted gayness, remained one of the greatest joys of Bernstein’s life.
Maestro also briefly dives into Leonard Bernstein’s relationship with his children, particularly in the standout scene featuring Maya Hawke as his oldest daughter, Jamie. The scene was based on a real-life conversation that Jamie had with her father after she had heard rumors about his homosexual activities at Tanglewood, a celebrated venue in Western Massachusetts where Bernstein essentially made a second home for himself. As depicted in the film, Bernstein lied and covered up the rumors to his daughter Jamie. The story about the fellow student who brought a gun into the Curtis Institute of Music to kill Bernstein, however, is completely true. Maestro has been nominated for four Golden Globes and is expected to make a push at the 2024 Academy Awards.
Maestro Ending Explained
Bradley Cooper’s Maestro paints a larger-than-life portrait of Leonard Bernstein that reveals his flaws through the tragic eyes of his wife, Felicia.
Leonard Bernstein & Felicia Montealegre Had 3 Children: Jamie, Alexander & Nina
Maestro accurately portrays Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre’s three real-life children, Jamie, Alexander, and Nina. In fact, much of the authenticity found in every scene, shot, and detail of Bradley Cooper’s film was made possible by the Bernstein family’s incredibly generous cooperation and invitations into Leonard’s home. They even granted access to his personal letters, which greatly informed Cooper’s understanding of how to play the real-life legend as well as tell his story as the director, writer, and one of several producers alongside Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg.
Maestro also drew inspiration from the personal memories and stories from Jamie Bernstein’s 2018 memoir Famous Father Girl: A Memoir of Growing Up Bernstein. Jamie recalls the scene about her father’s Tanglewood activities, as she wrote about it in her memoir, in an editorial on TIME, stating “He said the stories weren’t true. As I wrote about this incident, I included a new thought: it was occurring to me for the first time that my mother might well have put my father up to denying those rumors.” Bernstein reveals that Cooper took her speculation about Felicia guarding the truth from her children and added it to the film with a more concrete suggestion of it really happening.
What Happened To Leonard Bernstein After Maestro
Bradley Cooper’s Maestro features some of the highlights and heartbreaks of the legendary American composer’s life but ends before his death.
Jamie Bernstein Became An Author & Filmmaker
Following the events depicted in Maestro, Jamie Bernstein became an author and a filmmaker. According to her website, “Jamie has written and narrated concerts about Mozart, Aaron Copland, and Stravinsky, as well as “The Bernstein Beat,” a family concert about her father modeled after his groundbreaking Young People’s Concerts.” It appears that the strong bond that her father had developed at Tanglewood provided several possibilities for Jamie as well. She has produced and hosted the New York Philharmonic’s live national radio broadcasts, as well as multiple summer broadcasts, from Tanglewood in Lenox, Massachusetts.
Like her father, Jamie wears many different hats in the creative world. She is the co-director of an award-winning documentary film titled Crescendo: the Power of Music (2014). The revealing documentary follows the lives of several children who engage in youth orchestra programs for social transformation. As a writer and a poet, Jamie has many articles and poems that have been published in Symphony, Town & Country, and Opera News. She also is the editor of “Prelude, Fugue & Riffs,” which is a newsletter that chronicles the continued impact of her father’s legacy.
Maestro’s 8 Biggest Changes To The True Story Of Leonard Bernstein & Felicia Montealegre
Bradley Cooper’s Maestro is intensely focused on the dynamic between legendary composer Leonard Bernstein & the love of his life, Felicia Montealegre.
Alexander Bernstein Became An Actor & The President Of Leonard’s Artful Learning Organization
Similar to his older sister Jamie, Alexander Bernstein followed a creative path in his professional career, becoming an actor. He has appeared in a few TV movies including the 2012 Loving Miss Hatto in which he plays a pianist. Also like his father, Alexander earned a Bachelor’s degree at Harvard before getting a Master’s Degree from New York University in English education. Alexander became a teacher who taught for five years at the Packer-Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn, New York, a private prep school for grades K through 12. He was a second-grade teacher before becoming a theater instructor for their middle school students.
According to Leonard Bernstein’s official website, Alexander is the president of Artful Learning, Inc., and Vice President and Treasurer of The Leonard Bernstein Office, Inc. The actor who portrayed Alexander Bernstein in Maestro is Sam Nivola, who got his big break in Hollywood by appearing in Noah Baumbach’s satirical Netflix comedy White Noise (2022) as Heinrich. Nivola also plays Lee Polk in the 2023 drama Eileen and is slated to portray Will Winbury in Susanne Bier’s upcoming miniseries The Perfect Couple, which is currently expected to be released sometime in 2024.
Why Maestro Changes From Black & White Into Color, And Switches Aspect Ratio
Bradley Cooper’s biographical film Maestro switches between black and white and color and changes aspect ratio – what do the contrasting devices mean?
Nina Bernstein Worked As An Actress, Tended Her Father’s Legacy & Became A Food Educator
Nina Bernstein Simmons is the youngest daughter of Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre. Like her brother, Nina has also studied acting and worked professionally for several years. She appeared in several documentaries made about Bernstein such as American Masters (1998-1999) and Leonard Bernstein: Larger Than Life (2016). According to Leonard Bernstein’s website, Nina also “worked with the Library of Congress on making the Bernstein Archives digitally available to the public.” In addition, Nina has worked as a “food educator in underserved communities.”
Nina Bernstein is portrayed by actress Alexas Swinton in Maestro, known best for her roles as Eva Rhoades in the Showtime series Billions and as Rose Goldenblatt in HBO’s And Just Like That. Swinton has had quite an acting career despite her being just 14 years old. She has also appeared in the 2015 Showtime miniseries Flesh and Bone executive produced by Pulp Fiction’s Lawrence Bender, as well as Manifest (2019), Old (2021), and Emergence. Maestro marks the fourth feature film that the young actress has appeared in, which could end up being one of her most notable roles. Maestro was released on December 20, 2023, and is available to stream on Netflix.
Maestro
Maestro is a biographical drama about the famous composer Leonard Bernstein. Bradley Cooper stars as Leonard Bernstein and also wrote and directed the film. The movie chronicles Bernstein’s life from 1946, when he met Felicia Montealegre, through his two engagements and three children. Maya Hawke, Carey Mulligan, Sarah Silverman, and Matt Bomer star alongside Cooper.
- Release Date
- December 20, 2023
- Director
- Bradley Cooper
- Cast
- Bradley Cooper , Carey Mulligan , Maya Hawke , Sarah Silverman , Matt Bomer
- Runtime
- 156 Minutes
- Genres
- Biography , Drama , Music
- Writers
- Bradley Cooper , Josh Singer
- Studio(s)
- Amblin Entertainment
- Distributor(s)
- Netflix
