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Did Leonard Bernstein’s Wife Learn He was Gay?

von Doreen

18.Januar 2024

Songs was Bernstein’s best and most ongoing passions. However, his love lifetime was an essential part of his build-upwards, along with his letters help us mode a larger picture of an emotional existence that was laden up with twists and you can converts – perfectly share: “Clearly, he was at ease with getting sexual in several suggests and you may yet , the guy need a timeless lifestyle, having a wife and you may pupils so you’re able to just who he had been faithful. He was an elaborate, advanced guy, and you will cutting-edge folks have complex individual lifestyle.” step one Intriguing due to the fact characters come from people (usually dudes) having who Bernstein got matchmaking in the 1940s, We have chosen instead to focus on Bernstein’s own attitude so you’re able to their sexuality, and its ramifications to possess his field. In the telecommunications which have Copland dateinasia arvostelut and David Oppenheim in particular, and in particular letters to help you his sis Shirley and also to Diamond, the guy examines his sexual name, have a tendency to sharing your state of distress and you may internal dispute. For the one hand, their record inculcated conventional opinions and you may dating – ultimately marriage; on the other side, his tastes on the 1940s was indeed constantly for men. Immediately following his college studies were more than, the guy began a process out-of mind-exploration towards the psychoanalyst he called the “Frau” – Marketa Morris. While we are able to see using their letters, he shared an identical specialist having Oppenheim (that have who Bernstein got a close, absolutely personal relationship in early 1940s; their friendship try lifelong).

Shortly after an unstable initiate (due primarily to Bernstein’s initial habit of value marriage just like the a kind of test), the partnership from Leonard and you may Felicia flourished – like shortly after Jamie, the initial of their people, was born in 1952

It’s no wonder that Bernstein remained hushed about his sexuality inside the characters in order to Koussevitzky – up to, which is, the guy with pride established 1st wedding in order to Felicia inside December 1946, suggesting a picture of their sexuality which was at the best partial. Bernstein themselves is stressed you to their sex existence possess good destroying effect on their work prospects, dreading he may battle wanting employment given that an effective conductor when it turned into identified which he are gay.

It’s worth pausing if you will to adopt the newest cultural and you can personal framework that offered Bernstein including fear of just how anyone else you will view their sexuality. Of numerous Western psychoanalysts from the 1930s and 1940s experienced homosexuality so you’re able to feel a mental illness that could respond to “treatment”. The study from the Alfred Kinsey while others had written within the 1948 because Sexual Decisions regarding the People Male (the first “Kinsey Report”) attempted to codify degrees of homosexual, heterosexual, and you will asexual choices within the guys toward “Kinsey Level”, planning to reveal that guys don’t match tidy and personal kinds. 2

Discover an excellent predictably violent a reaction to Kinsey’s results: as well as others, J. Edgar Hoover, movie director of FBI, is actually quick to denounce new conclusions about profiles away from Reader’s Digest: “Mans feeling of decency declares what exactly is regular and you may what exactly is maybe not. Whenever American anyone, younger or dated, come to accept that there’s no such procedure just like the best otherwise completely wrong, regular otherwise unpredictable, people that do ruin society have a tendency to applaud a primary earn over our living.” step 3 Put differently, homosexuality, such as for example communism, are “Un-American”. 2 yrs later on, into the ed Senate Committee into Expenses on Manager Divisions granted an overview of the latest “A job away from Homosexuals or any other Sex Perverts in Bodies,” coming to your hair-raising end one to “homosexuals or other sex perverts are not right persons is working in Government for two reasons; very first, they are usually the incorrect, and you may 2nd, it form safeguards threats.” 4

Bernstein wasn’t, obviously, trying to a career on the authorities, however, the guy craved greeting. There was little solid facts to suggest one conductors weren’t designated to specific ranking due to their homosexuality regarding 1940s and you will 1950s, whether or not Dimitri Mitropoulos frequently noticed he was victimized. But a few of the most well liked data on the arts have been homosexuals, maybe not minimum Aaron Copland, who’d, by the middle-1940s, get to be the most well known and unique voice when you look at the American classical songs. Bernstein, however, aspired getting the songs manager away from a major Western orchestra and you can believed– rightly otherwise improperly – which he necessary to have demostrated he had been a normal, traditional loved ones man. Even after Bernstein’s repeated protestations he craved the greater individual lives off an author (where his sexuality would not have become difficulty), he may do not let go out of conducting while the a significant part away from his community.

Just what he did not have to worry about as frequently are the fresh new you are able to impact their sexuality may have into his wedding – at the least never as much due to the fact their picked partner, Felicia Montealegre, try concerned. She realized what she was committing by herself so you’re able to: once they married, she typed: “you are good homosexual and you may willing to deal with your since you was, without having to be a great martyr otherwise compromising me personally towards the L.B. altar (Page 320).”

An especially vibrant youngster, it is obvious of Bernstein’s characters household simply how much he appreciated their. A comparable like stands out through inside the Bernstein’s comments to the all the their youngsters (Jamie, Alexander, and you can Nina); along with his pure devotion so you’re able to Felicia try apparent in several characters on the early 1950s until the middle-1970s. It was a romance that had their rocky times, however, only with the new crisis away from 1976 and their “demo separation” made it happen jeopardize to fall aside. At the end of his existence, Bernstein joked to help you Jonathan Cott you to definitely “you would like like, which is the reason why I have ten thousand personal family relations which is unjust on them since I am unable to render any one of all of them everything”. 5 But also for a quarter regarding a great century, Felicia was the fresh new exclusion: she try unquestionably a passion for their lifestyle.

step 1. Dougary, Ginny (2010): “Leonard Bernstein: Magnetic, Arrogant – and you will good Father,” The times (London), thirteen February. On the web version in the , accessed .

Martin (1948): Sexual Conclusion throughout the Human Men

4. So it statement are reprinted when you look at the Promote, Thomas Good., ed. (2013): Documenting Personal Things: Prierica. Chicago: University out of Chicago Drive, pp. 144–seven. According to an editorial mention (p. 144): “A great deal more homosexuals than communists had been discharged away from government work inside period [new 1950s].”

About Leonard Bernstein Emails by Leonard Bernstein, edited because of the Nigel Simeone. Authored by Yale College or university Force inside the 2014. Reproduced which have consent.

Nigel Simeone is well known as the a writer and speaker towards audio that’s mcdougal of many courses as well as Leonard Bernstein: West Front Facts. He lives in Northamptonshire, British.

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