The Sound of Music

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The Sound of Music

Musical dates
Music: Richard Rodgers
Book: Howard Lindsay , Russel Crouse
Lyrics: Oscar Hammerstein
Literary source: Memories from Maria Augusta Trapp
Premiere: November 16, 1959
Place of premiere: Lunt-Fontanne Theater
Roles / people
  • Maria Rainer
  • Georg von Trapp
  • Max Detweiler
  • The Mother Superior
  • Baroness Elsa Schraede
  • Rolf Gruber
  • Sister Bertha
  • Sister Margareta
  • Sister Sophia
  • Mr. Zeller, the Gauleiter
  • Franz, Georg von Trapp's butler
  • Mrs. Schmidt, Georg von Trapp's housekeeper
  • The children:
    • Liesl von Trapp (16)
    • Friedrich von Trapp (14)
    • Louisa von Trapp (13)
    • Kurt von Trapp (11)
    • Brigitta von Trapp (10)
    • Marta von Trapp (7)
    • Gretl von Trapp (5)
The Lunt-Fontanne Theater in New York

The Sound of Music is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein . The book is by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse . The musical, especially the role of Maria Trapp, was developed for Mary Martin and was Rodgers and Hammerstein's last collaboration. The Broadway premiere was on November 16, 1959 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater in New York ; the show reached 1,443 performances. Vincent J. Donehue directed it and Joe Layton choreographed it.

In London's West End , production started on May 18, 1961 at the Palace Theater and reached 2,386 performances. The German-language premiere took place on March 9, 1982 in the Hildesheim City Theater under the title The Trapp Family .

basis

The musical is based on the memories of Maria Augusta Trapp , The Story of the Trapp Family Singers , published in 1949 ( From the monastery to world success , 1952), as well as the German film Die Trapp-Familie (1956) based on it there is also a sequel: The Trapp Family in America (1958), each with Ruth Leuwerik , Hans Holt , Josef Meinrad , Michael Ande and many more.

action

Maria is a novice in the Nonnberg monastery . The nuns send them to the Baron von Trapp, whose wife has died. Maria is to take care of the baron's seven children. With her loving nature, she conquered the hearts of the children and that of the baron by storm. He takes Maria as his wife. Until the connection to the Third Reich, the Trapp live a harmonious family life. Singing and dancing becomes very important to the Trapps. Maria founds a family choir with which the Trapps perform and win at a folk music competition in Salzburg. When Baron Georg Ludwig von Trapp is supposed to be forced to join the German Navy, he refuses and flees with his family to Switzerland in the fog and night. From there the Trapps emigrate to the USA. As the "Trapp Family Singers" the family travels across America to give concerts.

The plot is based on Maria Augusta von Trapp's life story, but differs from reality in several ways: Maria was an educator in the monastery, not a novice; she was only responsible for one child. Baron Trapp was not strict with the children, but compliant. The role of the local chaplain Franz Wasner is completely absent. The couple spent some time in Austria and then fled to Italy .

music

The historical Trapp children had become famous as a choir in American exile. Rodgers initially wanted to integrate their original songs into the musical, but got away (not least for copyright reasons) and composed everything anew. The "pedagogical" tone of the musical numbers, as in the solmization piece Do-Re-Mi , contributed significantly to the success.

The pathetic nature of Hammerstein's Musical Play and the recreated rural local color are successfully interwoven.

Music track

first act

Second act

  • My Favorite Things (Reprise 2)
  • No way to stop it
  • To ordinary couple
  • Gaudeamus Domino
  • Maria (reprise)
  • Confitemini Domino
  • Sixteen Going on Seventeen (recapitulation)
  • Do-Re-Wed (recapitulation)
  • Edelweiss
  • So Long, Farewell (reprise)
  • Finale Ultimo

The order of the titles is reversed in some versions or individual titles are omitted. The titles I Have Confidence and Something Good, which were actually written for the film, are also often included in the stage version.

filming

Based on the musical, the film of the same name with the German distribution title Meine Lieder - Meine Träume (director: Robert Wise ) with Julie Andrews was shot in 1965 , which is one of the four most successful Hollywood music films of all time and is one of the most watched films of all. It has also brought additional attention to the stage musical.

The 10th episode of season 8 of the American sitcom Will & Grace is based on The Sound of Music. Songs from the musical are also performed.

Awards (selection)

The Broadway production won five Tony Awards in 1960 in the following categories:

  • Best musical you can find with the musical Fiorello! shared
  • Best Actress : Mary Martin
  • Best Supporting Actress : Patricia Neway
  • Best set design: Oliver Smith
  • Best conductor and musical director: Frederick Dvonch
  • She also received a Grammy Award in 1960 for the best musical show album (music recording).
  • In 1998 the film landed in the list of the 100 best films of all time compiled by the American Film Institute at 55th place. In 2007 the film climbed to 40th place on the same list.
  • Two songs made it into the American Film Institute's list of the 100 best film songs ( The Sound of Music at number 10 and Do Re Mi at number 88).
  • The film made it to the list of the 25 most important musical films of all time on number 4 (from 2006), as (also) the American Film Institute announced.

tourism

The city of Salzburg , which primarily advertises being Mozart's birthplace, successfully attracts American and Asian tourists with the romantic locations of the film. What is curious about it is that The Sound of Music is rather unknown among the inhabitants or is criticized for the “ kitsch ” of the worldview that still exists in Austria today.

For fans of the film, the first sound-of-music tours were created in Salzburg in the late 1960s, which include various film locations such as Leopoldskron Palace , the gazebo at Hellbrunn Palace or the Mondsee Church .

In 1991, under the musical direction of Franz Langer, the Sound of Music Dinner Show was launched in Salzburg, which not only conveyed the cliché but also other musical values ​​of Salzburg and Austria, such as opera, operetta and real folk music, which the Trapp family liked to bring people closer to them during their time in the USA.

The Austrian theaters distanced themselves from this topic for a long time. For the first time the play was performed satirically distorted in the Schauspielhaus Vienna in 1993. After being rehearsed in Innsbruck in 1996, it also found its way into the Vienna Volksoper in 2005 . In 2007 the Salzburg Marionette Theater rehearsed a 90-minute version of the musical under the direction of the American Richard Hamburger and performed it for the first time on November 2nd in Dallas / Texas. It has been on the repertoire of the puppet theater since May 2008. "The Sound of Music", staged by Andreas Gergen and Christian Struppeck (with Milica Jovanovic as Maria and Uwe Kröger as Baron von Trapp) celebrated its premiere at the Salzburg State Theater on October 23, 2011, returning to the original location 52 years after its premiere back. In summer 2016 it will be performed again at the Kufsteiner fortress with actors from the Vienna Volksoper as part of the operetta summer. In the 2018/2019 season "The Sound of Music" will be performed for the last time in the Salzburg State Theater after 8 years in the repertoire.

literature

  • Ulrike Kammerhofer-Aggermann, Alexander G. Keul: The Sound of Music between myth and marketing . In: Salzburger Landesinstitut für Volkskunde (Hrsg.): Salzburg contributions to folklore . tape 11 . Salzburger Landesinstitut für Volkskunde, Salzburg 2000, ISBN 3-901681-03-5 .
  • Charles B. Axton, Otto Zehnder: Reclam's musical guide . 9th, updated edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-15-010560-9 .
  • Uta Gruenberger: Salzburg - Edelweiß, Edelweiß , DIE ZEIT, September 2, 2010 No. 36

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Uta Gruenberger: Salzburg: Edelweiss, Edelweiss . In: The time . February 5, 2012, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed May 27, 2017]).