The Sound of Music: 50 years on
We remember watching The Sound of Music for the first time. The DVD player had become mainstream and our parents were beside themselves
Memorable moment: Capt Von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) and Maria (Julie Andrews) with the children in one of the unforgettable scenes from the film. Film still courtesy 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
with excitement. “You have to watch this film,” they raved, proceeding to sit down with us for two plus hours of soaring music, lofty mountains, mischievous children, a strait-laced father and a bubbly nun-to-be-turned-governess. Just like our parents, and their parents before them, we fell in love with the music and the magic that is one of cinema’s greatest accomplishments to date.
It’s been 50 years since the film’s release on March 2,1965 but its appeal has not waned. Based on the story of the Von Trapps, an aristocratic Austrian family, it follows the heartwarming progress of an irrepressible young woman who is sent from the convent as a governess to the children. She meets her young charges-all seven of them-and their father, the commanding Captain Von Trapp. The young governess becomes a great favourite with the children, falls in love with their widowed father who reluctantly falls in love with her, many dramas and troubles ensue but finally, as war clouds loom, they escape over the mountains singing their favourite songs.
But the story behind the film reel was nothing like the climactic scene, where the Von Trapps literally scale the Alps to a new life in Switzerland. “Don’t they know geography in Hollywood? Salzburg does not border on Switzerland!” complained the real Maria von Trapp after seeing the film, as told in author Tom Santopietro’s new book, “The Sound of Music Story.” In reality, the Von Trapp family did make a timely exit, in broad daylight from behind their villa where, suitcases in hand, they boarded a train to Italy under the guise of going on a family vacation.
It had been scarlet fever that led Maria Augusta Kutschera to the villa. In 1926, Captain Georg von Trapp’s second daughter, Maria, contracted scarlet fever (the same illness that took his first wife’s life). Unable to travel to school he visited Salzburg’s Nonnberg Abbey hoping to secure a tutor for her. It was the ideal opening for 21-year-old Maria. Having trained at the Vienna State Teachers College she was assigned to a 10-month stint at the Von Trapps, also partly because of her deteriorating health within the confines of the Abbey.
Published in 1949, the memoirs of Maria Von Trapp invites us to the first glimpse of the story that would spark an award-winning movie and timeless classic. Born in Vienna and orphaned during her childhood, Maria graduated from college before entering the Benedictine Abbey of Nonnberg in Salzburg as a novice. A retired captain in the Austrian Navy, Baron Georg Von Trapp brought his young family to Salzburg from Pula (now Croatia) after the death of his wife.
The real family Von Trapp in 1940
The melodious chorus of Edelweiss and the entertaining “So Long Farewell” that appears in the film is hardly an exaggeration on the storyline. The family did in fact win first place in the Salzburg Music Festival in 1936 although the songs were changed for the film. Baron Von Trapp was critical of the Nazi regime, refusing to fly the Nazi flag on their house and declining a naval command and invitation to sing at Hitler’s birthday.
They found their escape with music. Following their success at the festival the family escaped to America. There the family choir wowed audiences and settled in a farmhouse in Vermont. Later called the Trapp Family Lodge it still operates as one of New England’s finest family inns.
The Sound of Music was originally a multiple Tony award-winning musical by Richard Rodgers with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. The duo were one of Broadway’s legendary partnerships, having written hits such as ‘Oklahoma!’, ‘South Pacific’ and ‘The King and I’. Based on Maria von Trapp’s memoir ‘The Story of the Trapp Family Singers’, The Sound of Music was a great hit almost immediately when it opened in 1959 as a Broadway production.
Readers will be surprised to know that even before the musical, a film version based on the book had already been made-‘The Trapp Family’ was released in 1956 in Western Germany and became a major success. A sequel, ‘The Trapp Family in America’ followed. In the same year Paramount Pictures also purchased the US film rights intending to produce an English-language version with Audrey Hepburn as Maria but this was subsequently dropped. Rodgers and Hammerstein were later given the opportunity to write the musical with a book by Howard Lindsay and Russell Crouse.
In 1965, screenwriter Ernest Lehman and director Robert Wise delivered the film version: The Sound of Music where a flibbertigibbet, will-o’-the wisp young novice waltzes into the Von Trapp family. The film left a million hearts turned, but the Von Trapp children had much to say about the portrayal of their father in the movie. Christopher Plummer’s stiff upper lip military dad was a far cry from the warm, charming father that Johannes von Trapp once described to the BBC. The film was inspired by Georg’s sailor outfits and distinct whistles for his seven children. He was a lover of music and the young Von Trapps were encouraged by their parents to sing and play several instruments including the accordion, violin and guitar long before they met Maria.
In 1927, 42-year-old George wed 22-year-old Maria, almost a decade before they fled Austria. It was actually Maria herself,” Santopietro writes, “with her emotionally stunted upbringing, who needed thawing.” The couple’s three children too were omitted from the movie. Another important figure we never met was Father Franz Wasner. A boarder they took in during the Great Depression, Wasner heard them sing and became the family’s music director, touring with them through Europe and the United States. He was replaced by the pushy yet charming moustachioed Max Detweiler.
While it is one of cinema’s most beloved classics, the reviews for The Sound of Music when it was originally released in March 1965 were less than favourable. TIME magazine’s anonymous critic wrote that the movie “contains too much sugar, too little spice,” and Bosley Crowther of the New York Times pronounced it “cosy cum corny”. What’s more Christopher Plummer, Captain Von Trapp himself, was against it from the beginning to the end, becoming a reluctant megastar following its immediate commercial success. In an interview with Vanity Fair this month he admitted, however, that “as cynical as I always was about The Sound of Music, I do respect that it is a bit of relief from all the gunfire and car chases you see these days.”
Today, of course, it is legendary; a household name that children grow up with, and adults return to time and again. When it was released The Sound of Music was the highest grossing film of that year. With it, Julie Andrews became the world’s favourite star, having already played Mary Poppins on screen and Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady on the stage. In the Vanity Fair interview, Plummer and Andrews squabble good-naturedly about the film’s commercial success. They’ve been friends since the film was made in the 60’s, and regularly tour together as part of other productions.
The film was nominated for ten Academy Awards, winning five for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Sound, Best Film Editing and Best Music, Scoring of Music Adaptation or Treatment. Andrews was nominated for Best Actress, but did not win. She could console herself with her Golden Globe for Best Actress for the film and the previous year’s Oscar for Best Actress as Mary Poppins.
With Lady Gaga paying a soaring, beautifully choreographed tribute to the film’s soundtrack at this year’s Academy Awards, the film is once more on everyone’s lips. There is more to come for The Sound of Music, that when adjusted for inflation is the third highest grossing film of all time in the North American box office and the fifth highest-grossing worldwide. In April, for two days, the film will be restored and re-released in more than 500 U.S. theatres, thus allowing a new generation of youngsters to discover it and just perhaps, in years to come count The Sound of Music as a classic from their childhood.
| These are a few of their favourite things Mary Anne David, Vocal Director: “I watched the film aged 8 or 9 and I remember my father raised me on ‘I have Confidence’. It’s such a wonderful, empowering film and I think it resonates with everyone who watches it, no matter what age they are. My favourite memory is of choral directing Gamini Fonseka as Captain Von Trapp in the 1978 stage version in Colombo. We became good friends after that, and it was such a wonderful experience to work with the cast and crew. In the early 70s, when I had my all girl group, Joy Ferdinand rewrote a song from the film in three parts for us, and that will be among the music we’ll perform at my anniversary show inJanuary next year. With my students I reserve most of the music from the film for when they’re about 13 or 14 and in that stage where they’re a bit reluctant to perform-there’s nothing like ‘How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria’ or ‘Climb Every Mountain’ to bring them out of their shells!” Kishani Jayasinghe, Soprano:  The Workshop Players 2008 production of The Sound of Music. Pic by Shehal Joseph “I practically knew every word and every tune of every song in The Sound of Music by the time I was four years old and it still remains one of my favourite movies/musicals. Every single song is bursting with tuneful adventure; fun and poignant lyrics and heartfelt nostalgia…they have such a wholesome, feel good quality to them and I still feel the same sense of magic and wonder I felt when I first heard and sang these songs. The Sound of Music was the reason my family first recognised – aged four – that I had a particular gift for musical memory (tunes and text) and singing in pitch, which was in many ways the first step of an incredible personal journey which has led me to the international operatic stage, so this work will always have a very special place in my heart.” Jerome De Silva, Director: “I remember when it came to the Rio Cinema. That was the first big screen cinema around. I saw West Side Story and it came close on the heels of My Fair Lady. I saw it as a schoolboy and I used to save up money so I could go and watch it over and over again. The first thing that struck me was the beauty of the Alps on the big screen-I was already a fan of Julie Andrews. Shanuki De Alwis, actress: “The first time I watched it was in the theatre. It was the first musical I watched. My favourite character was Maria. She’s a little crazy, a little fun. I used to mimic Julie Andrews when I played Maria in the Workshop Players production of The Sound of Music (2008), I would try to do her scoops the way she did in her songs. The best part of the film for me is when she and the kids fall off the boat. I also loved the puppet show with the goats. My favourite song- ‘My Favourite Things’. I think the beauty of it is in the simplicity of the score. It’s not complicated or complex.” Dinushka Jayawickreme, actress: “Playing the Mother Abbess in the Workshop Players production of The Sound of Music was my first experience of stage as an actress. I was 20 years old when I was cast in the role, it was intimidating. The Sound of Music was a movie that defined my childhood. My grandparents had the video for it along with My Fair Lady and my sister and I would sing the songs and dance around whenever we watched it. Ishan De Lanerolle, The De Lanerolle Brothers: “I watched it as a 12-year-old and immediately took a liking to that sort of sound, because it introduced me to harmony. My all-time favourite is Edelweiss, and I get my students to sing that song as well. As for ‘Do-Re- Mi’, they say ‘it’s a very good place to start’ and I agree, especially with young singers. I also realised a dream I’ve had ever since watching the film to visit Austria. My brother and I were lucky to be able to perform there and that’s something I’ll always remember. Today I watch the film with my daughter, and it’s as special as it was the first time I watched it with my parents and grandmother!” Lorraine Yu, Lanka Alzheimer Foundation: “The Sound of Music is one of the few films we play for those we work with at the Lanka Alzheimer Foundation. Their attention span is often very short, but most of them remember the film and the music very well and it really stimulates them. It’s one of the only movies that they really enjoy watching-maybe when the film is re-released we can make it an outing for some of them who are able to come.” Melissa Pereira, TNL Onstage Solo category winner 2012: “I am currently an RnB/Jazz/Soul singer-pianist…but my roots go way back to semi-classics and musicals. And this film has definitely inspired me to look at a music career as something inspiring. In the modern era, we see many examples of music that have been produced or performed merely due to commercial success and as a result music produced for the sake of its beauty is rarely heard. Honestly, The Sound of Music is one of those musicals that brings me back and reminds me of that beauty of music. That is what inspires me to pursue a music career and keeps me going as a musician.” |