Since I am at the Paris Opera house, let’s take this opportunity to discuss two recent films which paint very different portraits of two conductors , “Tár” and “Maestro”.
The conductor portrayed by Todd Field in his film “Tár” made in 2022 is fictitious, although visibly inspired – in broad, very broad terms – by the very real maestra Marin Alsop who also cordially hated the film.
The fictional Lydia Tár (played by Cate Blanchett) is the conductor of a prestigious philharmonic orchestra believed to be that of Berlin.
Worldwide acclaimed and preparing to record Gustav Mahler’s Fifth Symphony for the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon label, she is also at the head of a foundation which promotes young female talents called to become conductors. Her protégés have all made it onto the music scene, except for one of them, Krista Taylor, who was recently fired by Lydia Tár because of her difficult personality.
Cold and clinical, living only for music of which she calls herself the “master of tempo”, Lydia Tár is also a professor at the Juilliard School, where she soon has an altercation with a student who refuses to work on a piece by Jean-Sébastien Bach on the pretext that he is a white, misogynist and cisgender man.
Back in Berlin where she lives with her wife Sharon – who is also her first orchestral violin – and their daughter Petra, Lydia Tár meets Olga, who among other candidates applies for the position of cellist in the orchestra. Although the audition is blind, Lydia recognizes Olga and raises her score so that Olga is chosen. Olga is also unexpectedly chosen by Lydia to perform a piece as a soloist.
Krista Taylor, the young protégée who was fired, commits suicide and it turns out that Lydia systematically denigrated Krista to other conductors who were considering recruiting her, so much so that Krista’s parents took legal action for harassment against Lydia Tár.
Doubts as to the validity of the reasons which lead Lydia Tár to promote certain women begin to arise. Was Krista fired because she refused the maestra’s sexual advances? Is Sharon the first orchestral violin because of her marital relationship with the conductor? As for Olga, is she a new prey who is promoted to get sexual favors?
At the same time, a video which offers a distorted vision of the comments made by Lydia Tár during her altercation with the Juilliard School student appeared on social networks and causes a media scandal.
The fall of Lydia Tár has only just begun.
Todd Field’s movie is like its main character: clinical, cold, mental and hermetic (despite its duration of more than two and a half hours, I felt the need to watch it a second time).
Lydia Tár remains an enigma. This maestra, who was nourished when she was younger by Leonard Bernstein’s televised masterclasses, “Young People’s Concerts” during which the maestro worked with passion to introduce young people to classical music without any academicism, has nothing of the sacred monster. She is simply a monster, but we will never know if this is due to her childhood or to the dizziness that her pride of power gives her.
The reasons for her fall are just as obscure: we will never really know if the maestra falls from her pedestal for good reasons (harassment and abuse of power) or bad ones (an outraged cancel culture linked to a truncated video at the Juilliard School).
Far from this monster figure, the sacred monster Leonard Bernstein – who did indeed exist and whom I have just mentioned – is the main figure of Bradley Cooper’s film, “Maestro”, released in 2023.
The film traces the beginnings of the conductor (played by Bradley Cooper), his creativity, his passion for music and his eclecticism but more particularly depicts the relationship he maintained for more than thirty years with his wife Felicia (Carey Mulligan).
Their marriage will often be damaged by the maestro’s homosexual affairs, perfectly assumed by Bernstein if Felicia was not reluctant about them. The times were different and the assumed bisexuality of one of the greatest international conductors would probably have been poorly received.
However, love and tenderness marked their relationship until Felicia’s death in 1978.
Whether in “Tár” or in “Maestro”, the tyranny imposed by the maestra/o is never very far away. Violent, without limits and without professional or personal distinction when exercised by Lydia Tár, it exists quietly in Bradley Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein and is much more excusable because it arises from assumed and known – but taboo – sexual preferences.
Where a Lydia Tár wants to be mistress of tempo (power that she will lose figuratively when she can no longer do anything against the media and hierarchical decisions – and literally when she will have to wear an audio headset which gives her the tempo), a Leonard Bernstein appears as the master of rhythm. Tempo determines the speed of execution and pulsation of a global piece while rhythm determines the duration of notes in relation to each other. One can well imagine the difference implied in terms of musical life and sensitivity when one stretches a note or, on the contrary, attack it quickly – because there is a world between two notes.
Where a Lydia Tár lives in her head, a Leonard Bernstein lives – period. She is as cold, mental and clinical, as he is carried away by his love and his passions, whether musical or else.
She has no creative genius, he has plenty of them. She is as despicable as he is lovable. She is as much into power as he is into passion. She hides her personality and her crimes as much as he would like to expose his human truth and his works to the world.
In short, one is about destruction, the other is about creation – and I have to say that the correlation of the two films is more than interesting.
Marin Alsop, the very real conductor who vaguely served as an inspiration (American conductor at the head of a symphony orchestra, lesbian) to the character of Lydia Tár believes that the film is detrimental to the cause of women because “Tár” depicts a predatory woman and that this type of representation should disturb all women and all feminists.
To have an opportunity to portray a woman in that role and to make her an abuser – for me it was heartbreaking. I think all women and all feminists should be bothered by that kind od depiction because it’s not really about women conductors, is it? It’s about women as leaders in our society.”
Unfortunately, and it is a social taboo – some women are also predators – even if they represent only a tiny part of sexual attackers. I personally found it more interesting that the “Tár” predator was a woman – that she assumed masculine attributes to reach the height of her career and abuse her power (right-wing feminism, hello). Furthermore, and whatever Marin Alsop says, this type of predatory figure is rarely seen in cinema. I also liked that Todd Field left his viewers in the dark – it forces us to think.
Ungaro top – Alberta Ferretti skirt – Vintage gloves – Jimmy Choo flat shoes – Christian Louboutin clutch – Tara Jarmon fur jacket
To conclude this article, I offer you another type of symphonic exercise, which has enchanted me for several months: the collision between electro music and symphonic music. In other words, electro music supported by a symphony orchestra led by a maestro or a maestra. The ensemble is called Synthony and it is imperative to listen to it with earbuds:
April 26, 2024
