Cooper hopes film boosts awareness
Gushing after the New York Philharmonic performed Leonard Bernstein’s music, Bradley Cooper talked about creating the film “Maestro” in hopes of drawing more attention to the composer and conductor.
“Many people don’t know who he is,” the actor and director told the soldout crowd of about 1,800 at the Lincoln Center on Wednesday. “If you go to a coffee shop in New York City, let alone any other state in America, people have heard of ‘West Side Story’ but not Leonard Bernstein.”
Yannick Nézet-Séguin made his New York Philharmonic debut conducting works from the movie over an hour mixed with video and audio clips, then had an onstage conversation with Cooper, who portrayed Bernstein in the film. They were joined by Carey Mulligan, who played Felicia Montealegre, the actor and wife of Bernstein.
In an interview before the concert, Cooper recalled how he got into character during the 55-day shoot in 2022, when he had time for only a brief nap at the end of each day. Bernstein’s voice was the key.
“When I would be in the makeup chair before crew call, when I put that wardrobe on,” he said, “I had to make that leap of faith to stop talking like this and start talking and breathing like him, with a deviated septum and asthmatic and all the things that he had to deal with.”
“Maestro” premiered at the Venice film festival in September and has since been nominated for seven Academy Awards, including best picture, Cooper for best actor in a leading role and Mulligan for best actress in a leading role.
Nézet-Séguin, who is music director of the Metropolitan Opera and the Philadelphia Orchestra, served as a consultant to Cooper on conducting.
Bernstein, who died in 1990 at age 72, was an exuberant conductor known for occasionally leaping off the podium while calling for triple forte playing.
“We feel that sometimes we’re not as well-known as Beyoncé, let alone Taylor Swift,” Nézet-Séguin told the crowd. “Bradley Cooper is our hero in the world of music.”
An emotional high point was the film’s sixminute segment of Cooper at England’s Ely Cathedral conducting the finale of Mahler’s Second Symphony — a work Bernstein led 19 times at the Lincoln Center from 1963 to 1989, including his 1,000th performance with the philharmonic in 1971.
Nézet-Séguin called for reevaluating Bernstein’s classical compositions, most of which were not enthusiastically received. He cited his 2015 performance of “Mass” with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
“Why does ‘Mass’ have jazz and Hebrew and rock and choral?” Nézet-Séguin said. “That was the 1970s way of embracing it. But of course, sure enough, Bernstein was this visionary.
... I don’t think the music world would be where it is at the moment if it were not from him, Lenny, opening all those doors.”
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