The Real History Behind Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre’s Marriage in ‘Maestro’

Smithsonian Magazine
November 22, 2023

The Bradley Cooper-led film is a dramatization of the storied composer and conductor’s complex love life

On her 25th birthday in February 1947, Felicia Montealegre sent a giddy letter to her new fiancé.

“Lenny, my darling, my darling!” she wrote. “I am a quarter of a century old, a very frightening fact!” Recent developments, she went on, included the arrival of a black cocker spaniel puppy (“She’s mine, my very own!”) and an impending driver’s license exam (“I drive alone all over the place, up hill and down dale, heavy traffic and all—and I’m great! So there!!”).