Bernstein: Anniversaries for Orchestra: X. For Felicia Montealegre / Interview (Dialogue) / Songfest: To What You Said

[EDWARD R. MURROW]
Leonard Bernstein is a composer, conductor, and pianist. His wife, Felicia Montealegre, is an actress. Both lead full professional lives, but they're seldom apart. Mr. Bernstein is 37 years old, but he has been in the public eye for a dozen years, from the time he substituted for Bruno Walter to conduct the Philharmonic Symphony at the age of 25. Since then, Leonard Bernstein has conducted or played all over the world, and he's written symphonies, ballets, and opera, as well as the scores for the Broadway musical Wonderful Town and the motion picture On the Waterfront.

Felicia Montealegre came to Broadway and television from Santiago, Chile. She is one of television's first full-fledged dramatic stars. The Bernsteins, Leonard, Felicia, and their children, Jamie and two-month-old Alexander, live in New York City, here at Carnegie Hall and on Broadway. They've been here for about three years. Hello, Felicia

[FELICIA]
Hello, Ed

[EDWARD R. MURROW]
Hello, Lenny

[LEONARD]
How are you, Ed?

[EDWARD R. MURROW]
Lenny, it's for me always difficult to classify you professionally, since you do so many things at the same time. What do you consider your primary occupation?

[LEONARD]
I guess I'd have to say that my primary occupation is "musician." Anything that has to do with music is my province, wouldn't you say? Whether it's composing it, conducting it, or teaching it or studying it or playing it, as long as it's music, I like it

[EDWARD R. MURROW]
Felicia, do you have any trouble keeping up with Lenny's activities

[FELICIA]
Well, it gets pretty hard, Ed, and he's taken on a great many activities. This season promises to be a very hectic one. Among them, he's writing two musical shows. One of them is an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, that's West Side Story, with Jerry Robbins and Arthur Laurents. Wonderfully talented young lyricist, Stephen Sondheim. And then he's doing four feature presentations in Omnibus, the CBS television program. And then, what else?

[LEONARD]
You know my schedule better than I do

[EDWARD R. MURROW]
Felicia, what about you? Are you engaged in other things besides acting?

[FELICIA]
Well, it gets pretty hard to do much more than take care of this household. My husband, my children, and acting takes the rest of the time that's left over

[LEONARD]
And memorizing my projects

[FELICIA]
I can't help it

[EDWARD R. MURROW]
Lenny, what's the difference between the life of composer Bernstein and conductor Bernstein?

[LEONARD]
Well, I suppose it's a difference. It's a, a personality difference which occurs between any composer, any creator versus any performer. Any performer, whether it's Toscanini or Tallulah Bankhead, whoever it is, leads a kind of public life. An extrovert life, if you will. It's an oversimplified word, but something like that. Whereas a creative person sits alone in this great studio that you see here and writes all by himself and communicates with the world in a very private way. It's rather a grand inner life rather than a grand outer life. And if you carry around both personalities, I suppose you become a schizophrenic and that's the end of it