Felicia Montealegre Bernstein (6 February 1922 – 16 June 1978) was a Chilean-American stage and television actress born in San Jose, Costa Rica. From 1951 until her death, she was married to the American composer and conductor

Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...

Life and career

Montealegre was born on February 6, 1922 in

San José, Costa Rica San José (; meaning "Saint Joseph") is the capital city, capital and largest city of Costa Rica, and the capital of San José Province, the province of the same name. It is in the center of the country, in the mid-west of the Costa Rican Cen ...

to Clemencia Montealegre Carazo (San Jose, 1898-1963), and Roy Elwood Cohn, a US mining executive then stationed in Costa Rica. She had two sisters, Nancy Alessandri and Madeline Lecaros. Educated in Chile, she was raised Catholic, and later

converted Conversion or convert may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * "Conversion" (''Doctor Who'' audio), an episode of the audio drama ''Cyberman'' * "Conversion" (''Stargate Atlantis''), an episode of the television series * "The Conversion" ...

to Judaism, when marrying Leonard Bernstein (her own paternal grandfather had been Jewish). She established herself in New York, where she took piano lessons from her Chilean compatriot

Claudio Arrau Claudio Arrau León (; February 6, 1903June 9, 1991) was a Chilean pianist known for his interpretations of a vast repertoire spanning the baroque to 20th-century composers, especially Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and B ...

. Montealegre's voice can be heard on two works conducted by Bernstein: his own ''

Kaddish Kaddish or Qaddish or Qadish ( arc, קדיש "holy") is a hymn praising God that is recited during Jewish prayer services. The central theme of the Kaddish is the magnification and sanctification of God's name. In the liturgy, different version ...

Symphony'' as well as a version of

Debussy (Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most infl ...

's ''

Le martyre de Saint Sébastien ''Le Martyre de saint Sébastien'' is a five-act musical mystery play on the subject of Saint Sebastian, with a text written in 1911 by the Italian author Gabriele D'Annunzio and incidental music by the French composer Claude Debussy (L.124). B ...

'', partially performed in English. Montealegre also appeared in several television dramas, including a 1950 dramatization of

Henrik Ibsen Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright and theatre director. As one of the founders of modernism in theatre, Ibsen is often referred to as "the father of realism" and one of the most influential pla ...

's ''

A Doll's House ''A Doll's House'' ( Danish and nb, Et dukkehjem; also translated as ''A Doll House'') is a three-act play written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It premiered at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 21 December 1879, having be ...

'' on ''

Kraft Television Theatre ''Kraft Television Theatre'' is an American anthology drama television series running from 1947 to 1958. It began May 7, 1947 on NBC, airing at 7:30pm on Wednesday evenings until December of that year. It first promoted MacLaren's Imperial Chees ...

'', in which she played Nora. Another appearance on television includes the 1949 CBS teleplay (part of the "Studio One" series) based on Somerset Maugham's novel '' Of Human Bondage'', in which Montealegre played Mildred opposite

Charlton Heston Charlton Heston (born John Charles Carter; October 4, 1923April 5, 2008) was an American actor and political activist. As a Hollywood star, he appeared in almost 100 films over the course of 60 years. He played Moses in the epic film ''The Ten ...

as Philip Carey. She made no feature films, but starred in the 1976 Broadway play ''Poor Murderer''.

In popular culture

Montealegre features prominently in

Tom Wolfe Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. (March 2, 1930 – May 14, 2018)Some sources say 1931; ''The New York Times'' and Reuters both initially reported 1931 in their obituaries before changing to 1930. See and was an American author and journalist widely ...

's essay "Radical Chic."

Personal life

Montealegre met composer-conductor

in 1946 at a party given by Arrau. Their first engagement was broken off, and she subsequently had a several-year relationship with Broadway and Hollywood actor Richard Hart. After Hart's death she married Bernstein, in 1951, with whom she had three children, Jamie, Alexander and Nina. Montealegre helped found an anti-war organization educating women against the war in Vietnam "Another Mother for Peace" in 1967, and became controversial when she and Bernstein hosted an evening for the Black Panther Party in 1970. She was a primary focus in Tom Wolfe's New York essay recounting the events of that night entitled "Radical Chic: That Party at Lenny's". Two years later, she was also one of the 100 individuals arrested in an antiwar protest in Washington, D.C.

Death

Montealegre died of

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, mali ...

East Hampton, New York The Town of East Hampton is located in southeastern Suffolk County, New York, at the eastern end of the South Shore of Long Island. It is the easternmost town in the state of New York. At the time of the 2020 United States census, it had a tot ...

, in 1978, aged 56.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Montealegre, Felicia 1922 births 1978 deaths American stage actresses American television actresses American people of Costa Rican-Jewish descent Chilean people of Costa Rican-Jewish descent Naturalized citizens of Chile Converts to Judaism from Roman Catholicism Costa Rican Jews Jewish American actresses People from East Hampton (town), New York 20th-century American actresses Chilean emigrants to the United States Chilean Jews Leonard Bernstein Deaths from lung cancer in New York (state) Costa Rican emigrants Immigrants to Chile