![]() ![]() He explains her duties and summons the children with a boatswain's call. Maria arrives at the villa of Captain von Trapp. She will act as the governess to the seven children of a widower, Austro-Hungarian Navy submarine Captain Georg von Trapp. The Mother Abbess tells her that she should spend some time outside the abbey to decide whether she is suited for the monastic life. The Mother Abbess joins her in song (" My Favorite Things"). Maria explains her lateness, saying she was raised on that mountain, and apologizes for singing in the garden without permission. She returns late to the abbey where the Mother Abbess and the other nuns have been considering what to do about the free-spirit (" Maria"). One of the postulants, Maria Rainer, is on the nearby mountainside, regretting leaving the beautiful hills (" The Sound of Music"). In Salzburg, Austria, just before World War II, nuns from Nonnberg Abbey sing the Dixit Dominus. To make the story more dramatic, Lindsay and Crouse had the family, soon after Maria's and the Captain's wedding, escape over the mountains to Switzerland on foot. Since von Trapp opposed the Nazis by that time, the family left Austria after the Anschluss, going by train to Italy and then traveling on to London and the United States. The von Trapps spent some years in Austria after Maria and the Captain married and he was offered a commission in Germany's navy. Lindsay and Crouse altered the story so that Maria was governess to all of the children, whose names and ages were changed, as was Maria's original surname (the show used "Rainer" instead of "Kutschera"). The real Maria and Georg married at the Nonnberg Abbey in 1927. His wife, Agathe Whitehead, had died in 1922. He wrote to the Nonnberg Abbey in 1926 asking for a nun to help tutor his sick daughter, and the Mother Abbess sent Maria. The real Georg von Trapp did live with his family in a villa in Aigen, a suburb of Salzburg. ĭetails of the history of the von Trapp family were altered for the musical. But it was soon agreed that the project should feature all new songs and be a musical rather than a play. ![]() Then they decided to add an original song or two, perhaps by Rodgers and Hammerstein. The producers originally envisioned a non-musical play that would be written by Lindsay and Crouse and that would feature songs from the repertoire of the Trapp Family Singers. Donehue thought that the project would be perfect for his friend Mary Martin Broadway producers Leland Hayward and Richard Halliday (Martin's husband) agreed. The Sound of Music was the last musical written by Rodgers and Hammerstein Oscar Hammerstein died of stomach cancer nine months after the Broadway premiere.Īfter viewing The Trapp Family, a 1956 West German film about the von Trapp family, and its 1958 sequel ( Die Trapp-Familie in Amerika), stage director Vincent J. It was adapted as a 1965 film musical starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, which won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The show has enjoyed numerous productions and revivals since then. The first London production opened at the Palace Theatre in 1961. The original Broadway production, starring Mary Martin and Theodore Bikel, opened in 1959 and won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical, out of nine nominations. Many songs from the musical have become standards, including " Do-Re-Mi", " My Favorite Things", " Edelweiss", " Climb Ev'ry Mountain", and the title song " The Sound of Music". He and Maria decide on a plan to flee Austria with the children. He is ordered to accept a commission in the German navy, but he opposes the Nazis. She falls in love with the children, and eventually their widowed father, Captain von Trapp. Set in Austria on the eve of the Anschluss in 1938, the musical tells the story of Maria, who takes a job as governess to a large family while she decides whether to become a nun. It is based on the 1949 memoir of Maria von Trapp, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers. The Sound of Music is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse.
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