Leonard Bernstein’s wife, Felicia Montealegre – The True Life and Legacy of Felicia Montealegre

FELICIA MONTEALEGRE

Felicia Montealegre was an actress who worked on both the stage and screen. She played the role of Mildred in the 1949 CBS teleplay adaptation of Of Human Bondage, a novel by Somerset Maugham. She also made an appearance on Kraft Television Theatre in 1950 in a dramatization of A Doll’s House. The 1976 Broadway production of Poor Murderer also included Felicia. Felicia was a multi-talented artist who had a great acting career on Broadway and on television. She was also good at painting and sculpture in her spare time.

In 1951, Felicia Montealegre became Leonard Bernstein’s wife. They tied the knot in 1951 and remained so until her death in 1978. As a public figure and a rock for her husband Bernstein, Montealegre helped make the couple a force to be reckoned with.

However, being Leonard Bernstein’s wife wasn’t an all-smooth love story. Things were sometimes tense between them. It was generally known to Montealegre that Bernstein had affairs with both men and women throughout his life. Before they got married, they broke up once, and Bernstein left her for a man during their marriage. Montealegre was furious and told Bernstein he was going to die a bitter and lonely old man.

Childhood

Clemencia Montealegre, Felicia’s mother, was born in Costa Rica. On February 6, 1922, in San José, Costa Rica, her second daughter, Felicia, was born. American mining engineer Roy Cohn, who was descended from a Jewish family in Eastern Europe, was Felicia’s father. While working in San José, he met Clemencia; while Felicia was a toddler, he was transferred to Santiago, Chile, to manage the American Smelting and Refining Company.

Felicia and her sisters Nancy and Madeleine grew up in Santiago, Chile, in a home where everyone spoke more than one language and moved around a lot. There was a British Catholic school where the girls went to school. Felicia had already made up her mind to call the US her home when she was a teenager. The fact that her father was an American citizen allowed her to take his citizenship as her own. She swore the pledge of allegiance at the age of 21 in the U.S. consulate in Santiago. She spent the remainder of her life in the US after migrating there two years later.

It was supposedly to study with the renowned Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau that Felicia came to New York City in 1944. But she didn’t waste any time enrolling in Herbert Berghof’s Drama Workshop at the New School for Social Research; Berghof would go on to direct many roles she played in his plays. By taking her mother’s maiden name, she became known as Felicia Montealegre on stage.

Early Career

At the Provincetown Playhouse, Montealegre debuted as an actress in New York City in a production of If Five Years Pass by Garcia Lorca. Swan Song by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur was Montealegre’s Broadway debut on July 20, 1946, at The Booth Theatre, when she was 24 years old. Starting in 1949, Montealegre was a mainstay on a number of weekly television anthology dramas for networks like NBC, CBS, The Philco Television Playhouse, and The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre.

Felicia Montealegre’s Professional Career

The Oath of Hippocrates (1949) by Mary Violet Heberden and four episodes of the Suspense series (1949–1954) are among Felicia Montealegre’s notable television appearances, which were released under the banners of The Chevrolet Tele-Theatre, Goodyear Playhouse, and Studio One. Of Human Bondage (1949) by Somerset Maugham, in which she co-starred with Charlton Heston, and A Doll’s House (1950) by Henrik Ibsen are two of her other film credits. When the Motion Picture Daily Television Fame Poll was conducted that year, she was chosen as the Most Promising Female Star.

In 1950, Montealegre appeared on Broadway in The Happy Time as Leora Dana’s understudy, with Eva Gabor and Richard Hart. Montealegre acted in Poor Murderer in 1976, directed by her former instructor Herbert Berghof, marking one of many Broadway returns during her career. As a result of her appearances in productions of The Merchant of Venice and Henry V, she was also acknowledged for her Shakespearean roles.

In addition to her operatic and concert roles, Montealegre was a featured performer in classical music. She portrayed Joan, the titular character, in Arthur Honegger’s Joan of Arc at the Stake on multiple occasions, and in 1957 she narrated Parable of Death by Lukas Foss, which was based on Rilke’s mystical poem. In 1973, she debuted as Andromache in Berlioz’s Les Troyens at the Metropolitan Opera.

Felicia Montealegre’s Personal Life

It was at a New York City party in 1946 that Felicia Montealegre first met Leonard Bernstein. Montealegre had taken piano lessons with Claudio Arrau, a Chilean pianist when she relocated to New York; by the time the year came to a close, Bernstein and Montealegre had already announced their engagement. However, they quickly ended the engagement, and it took four years before they crossed paths again. Their bond was strengthened during that reunion, and in September 1951, they tied the knot.

During the four years that elapsed between Montealegre and Bernstein’s marriage, she was involved with actor Richard Hart. When Hart unexpectedly passed away at the young age of 35 from a coronary occlusion, their love came to a sudden stop. Montealegre held him as he passed away.

Being married to Leonard Bernstein

Going from being inseparable—as Arrau’s party and Montealegre’s history in music and orchestral performances attest—to being in a loving, supporting marriage, Bernstein and Montealegre eventually became very close. At first glance, the story between Montealegre and Bernstein seemed to be quite tidy. However, things weren’t quite so cut and dry when no one was around.

In 1976, Montealegre and Bernstein confirmed their split, saying they were trying to reconcile after breaking off their initial engagement. The film Maestro, directed by Bradley Cooper, portrays the relationship between Bernstein and Montealegre as one of love and respect, but it was also marked by stormy times. First of all, Montealegre had no idea what Bernstein was like sexually. Affirmation of shared objectives is provided by the fact that they remained married and brought up three children as a family.

Montealegre encountered illustrious personalities in her life’s artistic path, both during and after her time with Bernstein. These included the pianist Glenn Gould, the soprano Maria Callas, the actor Lauren Bacall, the photographer Richard Avedon, and even Jackie Kennedy and Boris Pasternak. She also began painting and studied under the renowned Jane Wilson. Her passion was extravagant floral arrangements, which she once described as her one and only indulgence.

Social Activism

Montealegre devoted her life to promoting social justice and caring for the welfare of others. These are just a few of Montealegre’s accomplishments as a social activist.

In January 1970, she hosted a contentious fundraiser to support the families of the “Black Panther 21”;

In 1967, Montealegre was an early supporter of “Another Mother for Peace,” an antiwar group;

Along with Rose Styron and Phyllis Newman, she participated in Senator Eugene McCarthy’s 1968 presidential campaign by distributing campaign materials at shopping centers across the nation.

In 1972, she was arrested at an antiwar demonstration in Washington, DC.

In her home country of Chile, Montealegre was involved with Amnesty International in covert capacities throughout the political unrest of the 1970s.

Leonard bernstein wife died

As shown in Maestro, Felicia Montealegre received a lung cancer diagnosis in 1977. One year prior, Bernstein had abandoned her for California to live with Tom Cothran. After Bernstein found out she had a terminal illness, he went back to taking care of her. To be with his wife again, Bernstein canceled his forthcoming concerts, resuming his role as a caring and loving husband.

At 56 years of age, on June 16, 1978, Montealegre passed away from lung cancer. Bernstein would be laid to rest next to Montealegre twelve years later at New York’s Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. Bernstein supposedly spent months in bed after Montealegre’s death, grieving and unable to cope. He returned to his work after a short break.

Although Maestro doesn’t provide a detailed account of what happened after her death, Bernstein did manage to go on with his life and work. After Bernstein’s wife passed away, he began to accept himself and began publicly dating males, after having a long and difficult fight with his sexuality. Until the music director’s 1987 death from AIDS, he and Cothran stayed friends but never reconciled their relationship.

Numerous fellowships and scholarships were endowed in Montealegre’s honor following her passing. Actors, playwrights, directors, and producers can apply for scholarships to study at Columbia, Juilliard, and New York University (NYU). New York’s HB Studio holds the Felicia Montealegre Master Class for acting students every year, while the Tanglewood Music Festival’s Bernstein scholarship for pianists was created in the 1980s as a sustaining scholarship for pianists.

To remember his late wife, Leonard Bernstein created the first of its kind in the early 1980s: the Felicia Montealegre Bernstein Fund of Amnesty International USA. The fund will ensure that the couple’s shared goal of safeguarding human rights continues long after they have passed away.