TALKING TO MAESTRO LEONARD BERNSTEIN ON THE FLIPSIDE

Another one for the ages.

In this episode, I invited two people to come to our podcast booth. One was Norman Lear, the prolific TV producer, and the other was Leonard Bernstein. I have just seen the Premiere of #MAESTRO #Netflix #StevenSpielberg #MartinScorsese #BradleyCooper #CareyMulligan #MayaHawke — and wondering if I might be able to invite the Maestro himself #LeonardBernstein and his wife #FeliciaMontealegre to our podcast.

I didn’t tell Jennifer who I was inviting, other than Lenny. I didn’t know if she had seen the film or not, so I did my best to ignore the title, and focus on the person I wanted to speak with.

I get overcome with emotion when he tells us that he met with Gustave Mahler on the flipside, someone he spent his life focused on, someone who like him was both a composer and a musician. “We lived dual lives” Leonard has reportedly said.

In this interview, Jennifer starts by saying that this “person is a director.” It didn’t occur to me to agree that a conductor is a director. (Doh!)

Jennifer mentions 48 years that “they were together” — but that is the amount of time that Felicia was in NYC — 27 years married to Leonard.