Did Leonard Bernstein’s Wife Discover He was Gay?
Music is Bernstein’s greatest and most ongoing welfare. However, their like lives try a significant part away from their generate-upwards, and his letters allow us to mode a fuller image of a difficult lifetime which had been loaded with twists and you will converts – neatly sum: “Clearly, he had been comfortable with are sexual in many different ways and you can yet , the guy wanted a vintage lives, which have a wife and you may youngsters in order to exactly who he was dedicated. He was an elaborate, cutting-edge guy, and you can state-of-the-art individuals have cutting-edge personal life.” step 1 Interesting since characters come from men and women (usually men) with which Bernstein had relationships within the 1940s, You will find chosen alternatively to target Bernstein’s individual attitude so you’re able to his sexuality, as well as effects to own their field. In correspondence having Copland and you will David Oppenheim particularly, as well as in specific emails so you’re able to his sibling Shirley in order to Diamond, he examines their sexual label, usually discussing your state out-of misunderstandings and you can interior argument. On the one-hand, his background inculcated conventional viewpoints and you may matchmaking – at some point relationships; on the other, their tastes on the 1940s were always for men. Just after his college or university education were more than, the guy first started a process out-of notice-mining towards the psychoanalyst the guy known as “Frau” – Marketa Morris. While we are able to see from their emails, the guy mutual an equivalent specialist which have Oppenheim (which have just who Bernstein had a close, positively romantic relationship in the early 1940s; its relationship was lifelong).
Immediately following a shaky start (due primarily to Bernstein’s 1st tendency to respect relationships once the an excellent brand of experiment), the relationship regarding Leonard and Felicia flourished – such as for example just after Jamie, the original of the pupils, was born in 1952
It’s no wonder one Bernstein stayed hushed about his sexuality in the characters to Koussevitzky – until Changsha in China wives, which is, the guy with pride launched his first engagement to help you Felicia into the December 1946, suggesting a picture of his sexuality which was at best partial. Bernstein himself are stressed one to their sex lifestyle may have a good ruining affect his a position candidates, dreading he could battle shopping for employment because the a good conductor if this turned known he is gay.
It is worthy of pausing for a moment to take on the fresh cultural and you can social perspective one provided Bernstein like concern with how someone else might evaluate his sexuality. Many Western psychoanalysts regarding the 1930s and you can 1940s experienced homosexuality so you can become a mental illness which could address “treatment”. The research because of the Alfred Kinsey although some had written during the 1948 because Sexual Decisions throughout the Individual Male (the original “Kinsey Report”) tried to codify degrees of homosexual, heterosexual, and you can asexual conclusion into the guys to the “Kinsey Measure”, planning to reveal that dudes did not fit into neat and personal groups. 2
You will find an excellent predictably violent reaction to Kinsey’s findings: as well as others, J. Edgar Vacuum, director of one’s FBI, is brief so you can denounce new findings regarding profiles from Reader’s Digest: “People’s feeling of decency declares what exactly is normal and you will what is not. If the Western anybody, younger or dated, visited believe that there is no such as matter as the right or completely wrong, regular or unpredictable, people who carry out ruin society tend to applaud a primary victory more all of our way of living.” step three This means, homosexuality, such communism, is “Un-American”. Couple of years later, from inside the ed Senate Panel for the Expenditures about Exec Divisions awarded a breakdown of the brand new “Work out of Homosexuals and other Sex Perverts into the Bodies,” visiting hair-elevating completion one to “homosexuals and other sex perverts aren’t best persons to get doing work in Regulators for 2 reasons; first, they usually are the wrong, and you will second, it compensate defense threats.” 4
Bernstein wasn’t, naturally, trying a job on the regulators, however, he craved enjoy. There clearly was nothing good proof to suggest you to conductors weren’t appointed to specific positions for their homosexuality regarding the 1940s and you will 1950s, regardless if Dimitri Mitropoulos seem to believed he was victimized. However, a few of the most well liked rates about arts was indeed homosexuals, not least Aaron Copland, who’d, because of the mid-1940s, get to be the most well known and you may distinctive voice in Western classical tunes. Bernstein, yet not, aspired as the music movie director out-of a primary American band and you can considered– correctly otherwise wrongly – which he wanted to demonstrate he was a conventional, conventional members of the family guy. Even after Bernstein’s repeated protestations which he craved the more private life from an author (where their sexuality have no been a problem), he may do not let wade out of performing once the an important part of his job.
Exactly what he don’t have to worry about as much is the fresh you’ll be able to impression their sexuality may have towards his wedding – at the very least never as much since their picked spouse, Felicia Montealegre, is actually alarmed. She realized what she was committing herself so you can: immediately following they partnered, she blogged: “you are a beneficial homosexual and you will happy to deal with your since you are, without getting an excellent martyr or sacrificing me to the L.B. altar (Letter 320).”
An exceptionally bright child, it’s obvious of Bernstein’s letters house just how much he liked their unique. An identical love shines owing to within the Bernstein’s comments to your most of the his college students (Jamie, Alexander, and Nina); and his sheer devotion to Felicia is actually apparent in many characters from the early 1950s till the mid-70s. It was a relationship that had its rugged moments, however, only with the newest drama off 1976 in addition to their “demonstration break up” did it threaten to-fall apart. At the end of their existence, Bernstein joked to help you Jonathan Cott you to “you would like love, which is the reason why You will find ten thousand romantic loved ones which is unfair on them since I can not render any one of them everything”. 5 But for a-quarter from an excellent century, Felicia are the difference: she was truly best passion for his existence.
1. Dougary, Ginny (2010): “Leonard Bernstein: Magnetic, Conceited – and you will good Father,” The times (London), 13 March. On the web type during the , utilized .
Martin (1948): Sexual Decisions on the Individual Men
4. This declaration are reprinted inside Foster, Thomas A., ed. (2013): Documenting Romantic Matters: Prierica. Chicago: College or university away from il Drive, pp. 144–seven. Centered on an article note (p. 144): “A whole lot more homosexuals than simply communists were discharged from government work within this several months [the fresh 1950s].”
About Leonard Bernstein Emails by Leonard Bernstein, modified because of the Nigel Simeone. Written by Yale College or university Drive in 2014. Recreated which have permission.
Nigel Simeone known since the an author and audio speaker into audio and is the writer of a lot guides as well as Leonard Bernstein: West Front side Tale. He stays in Northamptonshire, British.