Leonard Bernstein

A Martin Scorsese film about Leonard Bernstein has been confirmed as an upcoming project. Bernstein was the high priest of classical music in the United States and one of a handful of conductors who thrived both here and overseas.

Besides his musicals such as On the Town, Westside Story, and Trouble in Tahiti, he was a national figure because of his primetime television appearances on a show called Omnibus. That’s right — primetime television.

Classical used to be on primetime television on the big networks. That was before the media started kissing the ass of the ignorant and referring to the imbecilic as brilliant. Over the course of the past few decades the media has decided that what is most popular has the most value.

How could they do anything else? That’s capitalism.

Yet I’m not sure that it is capitalism. I’d say it’s commercialism.

Commercialism: practices and attitudes that are concerned with the making of profit at the expense of quality.

Commercialism is a big, hairy topic which I won’t get into. We got here because of an upcoming movie project about Bernstein so let’s return to that.

There aren’t many details about the production. No one has been officially cast as young Bernstein or old Bernstein, etc.

Here’s the deal. Will this movie be about the music first or will it be about a bunch of other topics and merely have a classical music soundtrack?

There are several juicy topics in Bernstein’s life such as his homosexuality in the context of his marriage and three kids. There is also the party he threw in support of the Black Panther organization in 1970. Those are certainly of interest but Bernstein is loved and venerated because of music.

Scorsese is a master so there is hope. However, don’t forget about commercialism.