Musical is actually Bernstein’s greatest and more than lingering hobbies. But his like life was a significant part away from his generate-upwards, and his characters allow us to function a larger image of an emotional lifestyle which had been packed with twists and you may transforms – neatly share: “Clearly, he had been comfortable with becoming sexual in several ways and you will but really he desired a vintage existence, with a wife and you may students to who he was loyal. He was an elaborate, complex people, and you can advanced people have complex individual lives.” step one Interesting once the emails come from those people (always dudes) which have which Bernstein had matchmaking during the 1940s, I’ve picked are Aarhus women attractive alternatively to target Bernstein’s very own thinking so you’re able to his sexuality, and its ramifications for their profession. Inside the communications that have Copland and you may David Oppenheim specifically, and also in some letters so you’re able to their cousin Shirley and Diamond, he examines their sexual label, commonly sharing a state away from frustration and you can interior disagreement. To the one-hand, their record inculcated conventional viewpoints and relationships – ultimately relationship; on the other side, their choice on 1940s had been usually for men. After his college studies were over, he began a method regarding mind-mining to your psychoanalyst he called the “Frau” – Marketa Morris. Once we are able to see using their emails, he mutual the same analyst having Oppenheim (having just who Bernstein got an almost, seriously romantic dating in the early 1940s; their friendship was lifelong).
Once an unstable begin (due primarily to Bernstein’s initial tendency to esteem matrimony as the an effective sort of check out), the connection off Leonard and you will Felicia flourished – for example after Jamie, the original of the people, was born in 1952
It’s no wonder you to Bernstein stayed hushed dedicated to his sexuality from inside the emails so you’re able to Koussevitzky – until, which is, he with pride established his first wedding to Felicia from inside the December 1946, indicating a picture of his sexuality which was at the best unfinished. Bernstein themselves was anxious one to their sex lifetime might have good destroying impact on his a position candidates, fearing he may battle in search of employment once the a conductor if it became known he was gay.
It is well worth pausing if you will to adopt the fresh cultural and you will public context one provided Bernstein particularly anxiety about exactly how anybody else you are going to take a look at his sexuality. Of several American psychoanalysts regarding the 1930s and you may 1940s thought homosexuality to be a mental disease which will answer “treatment”. The study from the Alfred Kinsey although some blogged when you look at the 1948 due to the fact Sexual Choices regarding People Male (the first “Kinsey Report”) made an effort to codify amounts of homosexual, heterosexual, and asexual decisions for the dudes to the “Kinsey Size”, looking to demonstrate that men did not squeeze into tidy and personal kinds. dos
There is a beneficial predictably unlawful reaction to Kinsey’s findings: yet others, J. Edgar Vacuum, director of your FBI, are small to help you denounce the brand new conclusions throughout the profiles off Reader’s Digest: “People’s sense of decency declares what is typical and you can what is actually not. Whenever Western some one, young or dated, come to accept that there isn’t any instance situation because right otherwise completely wrong, normal or unpredictable, those who perform destroy civilization will applaud a major win more our life.” step 3 This basically means, homosexuality, for example communism, are “Un-American”. Couple of years afterwards, during the ed Senate Committee toward Costs throughout the Government Divisions granted a report about the newest “Employment off Homosexuals or any other Sex Perverts in the Authorities,” visiting hair-increasing end one to “homosexuals or other sex perverts aren’t correct persons as involved in Bodies for 2 reasons; very first, they are usually not the right, and next, it form safety risks.” 4
Bernstein was not, obviously, looking to employment regarding regulators, but the guy craved invited. There’s little good research to suggest you to conductors were not designated to particular ranking for their homosexuality regarding the 1940s and 1950s, regardless of if Dimitri Mitropoulos frequently sensed he had been victimized. However, several of the most well liked figures in the arts was in fact homosexuals, maybe not the very least Aaron Copland, that has, by the middle-1940s, become the most well known and you may special sound for the American classical musical. Bernstein, yet not, aspired as the songs director away from a primary American band and you can noticed– correctly or incorrectly – which he needed to have demostrated he had been a conventional, old-fashioned members of the family people. Even after Bernstein’s regular protestations that he craved the greater amount of individual lifestyle out of an author (in which his sexuality don’t have come difficulty), he might don’t allow wade of performing once the an essential part out-of his industry.
Exactly what the guy didn’t have to worry about as much is brand new you are able to effect their sexuality may have into the their relationship – at the very least notably less much just like the his selected spouse, Felicia Montealegre, is actually concerned. She understood exactly what she was committing herself to: immediately following it hitched, she blogged: “you are an effective homosexual and you may prepared to undertake your as you are, without getting a great martyr otherwise compromising me personally on L.B. altar (Letter 320).”
An especially vibrant child, it is obvious regarding Bernstein’s letters family how much the guy liked her. The same like stands out as a result of during the Bernstein’s statements on the most of the his students (Jamie, Alexander, and Nina); and his awesome sheer dedication to Felicia are visible in lot of letters in the very early 1950s before the middle-seventies. It was a love that had its rugged times, but only with new crisis out of 1976 and their “demo break up” made it happen jeopardize to fall apart. After his lives, Bernstein joked to Jonathan Cott one to “you prefer love, and that’s why I have 10 thousand close loved ones which is unfair to them because the I can not bring any kind of them everything”. 5 But for 25 % away from a beneficial century, Felicia are brand new exception: she is actually unquestionably the most effective love of their life.
step one. Dougary, Ginny (2010): “Leonard Bernstein: Charismatic, Conceited – and you may a beneficial Dad,” The changing times (London), thirteen February. On the web version within , reached .
Martin (1948): Sexual Behavior on the Individual Male
4. So it declaration is reprinted within the Promote, Thomas A good., ed. (2013): Recording Close Issues: Prierica. Chicago: School from Chi town Drive, pp. 144–7. Centered on an editorial notice (p. 144): “Significantly more homosexuals than just communists was basically fired off federal efforts contained in this months [the newest 1950s].”
In the Leonard Bernstein Characters by the Leonard Bernstein, edited of the Nigel Simeone. Compiled by Yale College or university Press in the 2014. Reproduced which have consent.
Nigel Simeone is well known since an author and you may speaker to your music that’s mcdougal of many guides together with Leonard Bernstein: West Side Facts. The guy stays in Northamptonshire, United kingdom.