Georg Von Trapp Sleep Facts

Austro-Hungarian naval officer Georg von Trapp commanded submarines before settling into the more tranquil role of family man. From wartime strategy to musical houseguest wrangling, this quiet drift through his life offers mild intrigue and insomnia relief.

Transcript

Welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast where I help you drift off one fact at a time.

I'm your host Benjamin Boster and today let's learn about Georg von Trapp.

Georg Ludwig Ritter von Trapp,

The 4th of April 1880 to the 30th of May 1947,

Was an officer in the Austro-Hungarian navy who became the patriarch of the Trapp family singers.

Trapp was the most successful Austro-Hungarian submarine commander of World War I.

Trapp's accomplishments during World War I earned him numerous decorations including the military order of Maria Theresa.

His first wife,

Agatha Whitehead,

Died of scarlet fever in 1922,

Leaving behind seven children.

Trapp hired Maria Augusta Cucera to tutor one of his daughters and married her in 1927.

He lost most of his wealth in the Great Depression,

So the family turned to singing as a way of earning a livelihood.

Trapp declined a commission in the German navy after the Anschluss and emigrated with his family to the United States.

After his death in 1947,

The family home in Stow,

Vermont became the Trapp family lodge.

Maria von Trapp's 1949 memoir,

The Story of the Trapp Family Singers,

Was adapted into the West German film,

The Trapp Family,

1956,

Which served as the basis for the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music,

1959,

And the 1965 film adaptation directed by Robert Wise.

Georg Ludwig Ritter von Trapp was born in Zara in the kingdom of Dalmatia,

Then a crown land of the Austro-Hungarian Empire,

And now in Croatia.

His father,

Forgotten Kapitan August Johann Trapp,

1836-1884,

Was a naval officer,

And his mother,

Hedwig Vepler,

1855-1911,

Had immigrated to the Adriatic coast from the Grand Duchy of Hesse.

His father had been raised to the Austrian nobility with the hereditary title of Ritter,

Upon being made a member of the Order of the Iron Crown.

Trapp's older sister was the Austrian artist,

Heide von Trapp,

And his brother,

Werner,

Died in 1915.

In 1894,

Aged 14,

Trapp followed in his father's footsteps and joined the Austro-Hungarian Navy,

Entering the Imperial and Royal Naval Academy at Fiume.

As part of their required education,

All naval cadets were taught to play a musical instrument.

Georg von Trapp selected the violin.

He graduated four years later,

And completed two years of follow-on training voyages,

Including one to Australia as a cadet aboard the sail-training corvette SMS Zaida II.

On the voyage home,

He visited the Holy Land,

Where he met a Franciscan friar who took him on a tour of all the biblical sites he wanted to see.

Among other things,

Trapp bought seven bottles of water from the Jordan River,

Which were later used to baptize his first seven children.

In 1900,

He was assigned to the protected cruiser SMS Zenta,

And was decorated for his performance during the Boxer Rebellion in China.

In 1902,

He passed the final officer's examination and was commissioned as Fregatenlieutenant,

A frigate lieutenant equivalent to sub-lieutenant,

In May 1903.

He was fascinated by submarines,

And in 1908 seized the opportunity to transfer to the Navy's newly formed submarine arm,

Or U-Bootwaffe,

Receiving promotion to Linenschiffsleutnant,

Ship of the line lieutenant,

Or lieutenant,

That November.

In 1910,

He was given command of the newly constructed SM U-6.

He commanded U-6 until 1913.

On April 17,

1915,

Trapp took command of the SM U-5.

He conducted nine combat patrols in U-5.

Trapp was transferred to the SM U-14,

The former French submarine Curie,

Which had been sunk and salvaged by the Austro-Hungarian Navy.

He conducted ten more war patrols in the much larger submarine.

In May 1918,

He was promoted to Corvette Capitaine,

Equal to lieutenant commander,

And given command of the submarine base at Kataro in the Gulf of Kotor.

However,

Austria-Hungary's defeat in World War I led to the empire's collapse.

The territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was divided among seven countries,

With the Kingdom of Serbs,

Croats,

And Slovenes keeping most of the seacoast.

The Republic of German-Austria was landlocked and no longer had a navy,

Putting an end to Trapp's naval career.

Trapp married Agatha-Gilbertina Whitehead,

The eldest daughter and third child of Countess Agatha-Gilbertina von Breuner-Eckerford,

1856-1945,

Austro-Hungarian nobility,

And Cavalier Knight John Whitehead,

1854-1902,

Son of Robert Whitehead,

1823-1905,

Who invented the modern torpedo,

And a partner at the family's Fiume Whitehead Torpedo Factory.

Not,

As frequently stated,

A niece of the British government minister,

St.

John Broderick,

1st Earl of Middleton.

The British government rejected Whitehead's invention,

But Austrian Emperor Franz Josef invited him to open a torpedo factory in Fiume.

Trapp's first command was the U-boat U-6,

Which was launched by Agatha.

Agatha's inherited wealth sustained the couple and permitted them to start a family,

And they had two sons and five daughters over the next ten years.

Their first child was Rupert,

Born on November 1st,

1911,

At Pula,

While the couple were living at Pina Buritsina,

11.

Their other children were Agatha,

Also born in Pula,

Maria Franzitska,

Werner,

Hetwig,

And Johanna,

All born at the family home,

The Erlhof in Zell am See,

And Martina,

Born at the Martinschlossel at Kostenerberg,

For which she was named.

On September 3rd,

1922,

Agatha von Trapp died of scarlet fever,

Contracted from her daughter Agatha.

Trapp then acquired Villa Trapp in Eigen,

A suburb of Salzburg,

And moved his family there in 1924.

During this period,

He delivered several lectures and conducted interviews on his naval career.

About 1926,

Maria Franzitska was recovering from an illness and was unable to go to school,

So Trapp hired Maria Augusta Kutschera,

A novice from the nearby Nonnberg Abbey,

As a tutor.

They were married on November 26th,

1927,

When he was 47 and she was 22.

They had three children,

Rosemarie,

Born on February 8th,

1929,

Eleanor,

Called Lorley,

Born May 14th,

1931,

And Johannes,

Born January 17th,

1939,

In Pennsylvania.

In 1935,

Trapp's money,

Inherited from his English first wife,

Was invested in a bank in England.

Austria was under economic pressure from a hostile Germany,

And Austrian banks were in a precarious position.

Trapp sought to help a friend in the banking business,

Augusta Carolina Lamer,

1885 to 1937,

So he withdrew most of his money from London and deposited it in an Austrian bank.

The bank failed,

Wiping out most of the family's substantial fortune.

At about that time,

A Catholic priest,

Franz Fassner,

Instructed the children in music.

Around 1936,

Lotte Lehmann heard the family sing,

And she suggested they perform paid concerts.

When the Austrian Chancellor,

Kurt von Schuschnick,

Heard them on the radio,

He invited them to perform in Vienna.

Father Fassner became the group's musical director.

According to Maria von Trapp's memoirs,

Georg von Trapp found himself in a vexing situation after the German takeover of Austria in 1938.

He was offered a commission in the German army.

This was a tempting proposition,

Particularly when Georg von Trapp saw the technological advances in 1930s U-boats,

Unthinkable compared to those he had once commanded in World War I.

But Trapp decided to decline the offer out of hostility to Nazi ideology.

He also politically declined a request for the family choir to perform at Hitler's birthday concert.

After his eldest son also announced his intention to refuse to benefit from anti-Semitism,

And to similarly decline a medical position at a prestigious Vienna hospital that had just fired all Jewish doctors,

Georg von Trapp realized that the writing was on the wall.

He summoned all his children and warned them that no family could safely refuse three successive offers from a man like Adolf Hitler.

After Georg advised them that they must choose between a life of comfort or become refugees and keep their honor,

The Trapp family decided to emigrate from Nazi Austria.

On leaving Austria,

The Trapps traveled by train to Italy,

Not over the mountains by foot to Switzerland as is depicted in The Sound of Music.

The family had a contract with an American booking agent when they left Austria.

Once in Italy,

They contacted the agent and requested fare to America,

First traveling to London before sailing to the United States for their first concert tour.

In 1939,

The family returned to Europe to tour Scandinavia,

Hoping to continue their concerts in cities beyond the reach of the Third Reich.

During this time,

They went back to Salzburg for a few months before returning to Sweden to finish the tour.

From there,

They traveled to Norway to begin the trip back to the United States in September 1939,

Just after World War II broke out.

After living for a short time in Marion,

Pennsylvania,

Where their youngest child,

Johannes,

Was born,

The family settled in Stow,

Vermont,

In 1941.

They purchased a 660-acre farm in 1942 and converted it into the Trapp family lodge.

In January 1947,

Major General Harry J.

Collins turned to the Trapp family in the U.

S.

,

Pleading for help for the Austrian people,

Having seen firsthand the suffering of the residents of Salzburg when he had arrived there with the 42nd Infantry Division after World War II.

The Trapp family founded the Trapp Family Austrian Relief,

Inc.

,

The priest Franz Fassner,

Their pre-war friend,

Became its treasurer.

Trapp died of lung cancer on May 30,

1947,

In Stow,

Vermont.

In The Story of the Trapp Family Singers,

1949,

Maria von Trapp pointed out that there was a high incidence of lung cancer among World War I U-boat crews due to the diesel and gasoline fumes and poor ventilation.

And that his death could be considered service-related.

She also acknowledged in her book that,

Like most men of the period,

He was a heavy smoker.

Trapp has been portrayed in various adaptations of his family's life,

Such as The Sound of Music,

Both the 1965 film played by Christopher Plummer and the Broadway musical,

As well as two German films,

The Trapp Family,

1956,

And The Trapp Family in America,

1958.

However,

These adaptations often alter the portrayal of a captain.

In real life,

And in the memoir The Story of the Trapp Family Singers,

Written by his second wife,

Maria Augusta Trapp,

The captain has been described as being a warm and loving father who was always around.

However,

The captain was portrayed in a more negative light in many adaptations.

For instance,

In the 1965 film,

Georg von Trapp was portrayed as a disciplinary man who always went away and did not care for his children or their feelings at the beginning of the film.

BBC Radio presented a different account of the family in October 2009 in a play by Annie Caulfield called The von Trapps and Me,

Focused on Princess Yvonne,

The woman Captain von Trapp jilted in order to marry Maria.

Let's learn a little bit more about the Trapp Family Singers.

The Trapp Family,

Also known as the von Trapp Family,

Was a singing group formed from the family of former Austrian naval commander Georg von Trapp.

The family achieved fame in their original singing career in their native Austria during the interwar period.

They also performed in the United States before immigrating there permanently to escape the deteriorating situation in Austria leading up to World War II.

In the United States,

They became well-known as the Trapp Family Singers until they ceased to perform as a unit in 1957.

The family's story later served as the basis for a memoir,

Two German films,

And the Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway musical The Sound of Music.

The last surviving of the original seven,

Born to Captain von Trapp,

And his wife,

Agatha Whitehead,

Maria Franziska died in 2014 at the age of 99.

The youngest and last surviving member of the Trapp Family Singers,

Born to Captain von Trapp and Maria von Trapp,

Is Johannes von Trapp.

When Adolf Hitler invaded Austria in 1938,

The family escaped first to Italy,

Of which the Zadar-born Georg and thus the family were legally citizens.

For some months in 1938,

Just after their flight,

They lived in Varmundt near the Hague,

Netherlands,

As the guests of a Dutch banker,

Ernest Menten.

This episode is described by local historian Miep Smitsloh in her 2007 Dutch book Tassen Toll en Trekvat,

Between Toll and Canal.

In her account of the flight,

Maria von Trapp does not mention this stay.

From there they went to London,

And then to the United States,

Where they stayed until the expiration of their visas.

After touring in Scandinavia,

They returned to the United States on September 7,

1939,

And applied for immigrant status.

Once in the United States,

They earned money by performing and touring nationally and internationally,

First as the Trapp Family Choir,

And then the Trapp Family Singers,

A change suggested by their booking agent,

Frederick Christian Schong.

After living for a short time in Philadelphia,

And then Marion,

Pennsylvania,

Where their youngest child,

Johannes,

Was born,

The family settled in Stow,

Vermont,

In 1941.

They purchased a farm in 1942 and converted it into the Trapp Family Lodge,

Initially called Chor Unum,

Latin for One Heart.

After World War II,

They founded the Trapp Family Austrian Relief Fund,

Which sent food and clothing to people impoverished in Austria.

By now based permanently in the United States,

The family performed their unique mixture of liturgical music,

Madrigals,

Folk music,

And instrumentals to audiences in over 30 countries for the next 20 years.

They made a series of 78 RPM records for RCA Victor in the 1950s,

Some of which were later issued on RCA Camden LPs.

There were also a few later recordings released on LPs,

Including some stereo sessions.

The family's singing group disbanded in 1957.

Maria wrote an account of the singing family,

The story of the Trapp Family Singers,

Which was published in 1949 and was the inspiration for the 1956 West German film,

The Trapp Family,

Which in turn inspired Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1959 Broadway musical,

The Sound of Music,

And then its 1965 film adaptation starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer,

Which held the title of highest grossing film of all time for five years.

At the time of its cessation in 1957,

The group included a number of non-family members,

And only Maria's iron will had kept the group together for so long.

After the group's demise,

Maria,

Johannes,

Rosemary,

And Maria Franziska went to New Guinea to do missionary work.

Later,

Maria returned to run the Trapp Family Lodge for a number of years.

The real-life Trapp Family were a respected Austrian singing group throughout their career.

However,

Their style was a world away from Rodgers and Hammerstein-created,

Crowd-pleasing popular numbers,

As later included in the musical and film versions of their lives.

Many of their studio recordings survive and have been reproduced as contemporary CD compilations.

As for their live performances,

In his 2004 essay,

Family Values,

The Trapp Family Singers in North America,

1938-1956,

Michael Saffel writes,

It is difficult to document today precisely what the Trapps performed and where they performed it.

Only a very few of their programs have been reprinted.

One of these,

Again,

A Christmas program,

Identifies an arrangement of three short pieces for antique instruments and a sonata by Sammartini,

Presented by a quintet of recorders,

As the evening's principal instrumental selections.

Shorter vocal works included Pretorius' Es ist ein Rosensprungen,

A Monteverdi madrigal,

Pulse,

Midwinter,

And an arrangement of The Holly and the Ivy.

Another program,

Unfortunately incomplete,

But known to have been presented in 1943 at Boston's Jordan Hall,

Featured a song by John Dowland,

Transcriptions by Wassner of Tyrolean folk tunes,

And a trio for two recorders and viola da gamba,

Composed by Werner von Trapp.

In spite of their instrumental accomplishments,

However,

The Trapps were above all a vocal ensemble that sang and played music together,

Largely for religious reasons.

On the other hand,

Press releases subsequent to 1940 advertised rollicking folk songs of many lands,

Gay lilting madrigals,

And lusty yodels and mountain calls,

As well as exquisite old motets and masses,

And bragged of record cross-country tours and large numbers of engagements,

Which attested to their popular appeal and suggests that their religious content was only one of several contributing elements to this over their main period of popularity in America.

According to Maria,

Under the management of F.

C.

Shong,

Her programs in the past had been mostly in Latin and German.

Now we added English numbers.

Among the English madrigals and folk songs,

We found some wonderful pieces,

Like Sweet Honey-Sucking Bees,

Early One Morning,

And Just as the Tide Was Flowing.

And among the old American folk songs,

We found his treasures.

Our program now had five parts.

First,

Sacred music,

Selections from the ancient masters from the 16th and 17th centuries.

Second,

Music played on the ancient instruments,

Recorders,

Viola da gamba,

Spinet.

Third,

Madrigals and ballads.

Fourth,

Austrian folk songs and mountain calls.

Fifth,

English and American folk songs.

Five grandchildren of Werner von Trapp,

Called Kurt in the film,

Great-grandchildren of Georg and step-great-grandchildren of Maria,

Formed the singing group,

The von Trapps.

They recorded five albums in a modern style between 2001 and 2016 before disbanding.

Partial discography.

78 recordings.

Trapp family choir.

Folk songs of Central Europe.

Victor.

Dr.

Franz Fassner,

Conductor.

78 rpm set.

Five records.

LP releases.

An Evening of Folk Songs with the Trapp Family Singers,

Decca DL 9793.

Christmas with the Trapp Family Singers,

Deutsche Grammophon,

1953.

The Best of the Trapp Family Singers,

Decca,

1960.

The Sound of Music Sung and Played by Members of the Famous Trapp Family Singers in Chorus,

RCA,

LSP-2277,

1960.

The Original Trapp Family Choir,

The Sound of Folk Music of Many Lands,

CAS 904-ELP33,

1965.

Compilation.

CD Releases.

Compilations.

The Sound of Christmas,

Delta Distribution,

Laser Light,

1992.

Journey,

Jasmine,

Two CDs.

One Voice,

Jasmine,

Two CDs.

Original Trapp Family Singers.

The Sound of Music is a musical with music by Richard Rogers,

Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II,

And a book by Howard Lindsay and Russell Krauss.

It is based on the 1949 memoir of Maria von Trapp,

The Story of the Trapp Family Singers.

Set in Austria on the eve of 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.

She falls in love with the children,

And eventually their widowed father,

Captain von Trapp.

He is ordered to accept a commission in the German navy,

But he opposes the Nazis.

He and Maria decide on a plan to flee Austria with the children.

Many songs from the musical have become standards,

Including Do Re Mi,

My Favorite Things,

Edelweiss,

Climb Every Mountain,

And the title song,

The Sound of Music.

The original Broadway production,

Starring Mary Martin and Theodore Bickel,

Opened in 1959,

And won five Tony Awards,

Including Best Musical out of nine nominations.

The first London production opened at the Palace Theatre in 1961.

The show has enjoyed numerous productions and revivals since then.

It was adapted as a 1965 film musical starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer,

Which won five Academy Awards.

Including Best Picture.

The Sound of Music was the last musical written by Rodgers and Hammerstein,

As Oscar Hammerstein died of stomach cancer nine months after the Broadway premiere.

After viewing The Trapp Family,

A 1965 West German film about the Trapp family,

And its 1958 sequel,

The Trapp Family in America,

Stage director Vincent J.

Donohue thought that the project would be perfect for his friend Mary Martin.

Broadway producers Leland Hayward and Richard Halliday,

Martin's husband,

Agreed.

The producers originally envisioned a non-musical play that would be written by Lindsay and Krauss,

And that would feature songs from the repertoire of the Trapp family singers.

Then they decided to add an original song or two,

Perhaps by Rodgers and Hammerstein.

But it was soon agreed that the project should feature all new songs,

And be a musical rather than a play.

Details of the history of the von Trapp family were altered for the musical.

The real Georg von Trapp did live with his family in a villa in Eigen,

A suburb of Salzburg.

He wrote to the Nonnberg Abbey in 1926,

Asking for a nun to help tutor his sick daughter,

And the mother,

Abbas,

Sent Maria.

His wife,

Agatha Whitehead,

Had died in 1922.

The real Maria and Georg married at the Nonnberg Abbey in 1927.

Lindsay and Krauss altered the story so that Maria was governess to all the children,

Whose names and ages were changed,

As was Maria's original surname.

The show used Rainer instead of Kutschera.

The von Trapps spent some years in Austria after Maria and the captain married,

And he was offered a commission in Germany's navy.

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.

To make the story more dramatic,

Lindsay and Krauss had the family,

Soon after Maria's and the captain's wedding,

Escape over the mountains to Switzerland on foot.

Act I.

In Salzburg,

Federal state of Austria,

Just before World War II,

Nuns from Nonnberg Abbey sing the Dixi Dominus.

One of the postulants,

Maria Rainer,

Is on the nearby mountainside,

Regretting leaving the beautiful hills.

She returns late to the abbey where the mother,

Abbas,

And the other nuns have been considering what to do about the free spirit.

Maria explains her lateness,

Saying she was raised on that mountain and apologizes for singing in the garden without permission.

The mother,

Abbas,

Joins her in song,

Singing My Favorite Things.

The mother,

Abbas,

Tells her that she should spend some time outside the abbey to decide whether she is suited for the monastic life.

She will act as the governess to the seven children of a widower,

Austro-Hungarian Navy submarine captain Georg von Trapp.

Maria arrives at the villa of Captain von Trapp.

He explains her duties and summons the children with a bosun's call.

They march in,

Clad in uniforms.

He teaches her their individual signals on the call,

But she openly disapproves of this militaristic approach.

Alone with them,

She breaks through their weariness and teaches them the basics of music.

Rolf,

A younger messenger,

Delivers a telegram and then meets with the eldest child,

Liesel,

Outside the villa.

He claims he knows what is right for her because he is a year older than she.

They kiss and he runs off,

Leaving her squealing with joy.

Meanwhile,

The housekeeper,

Frau Schmidt,

Gives Maria material to make new clothes,

As Maria had given all her possessions to the poor.

Maria sees Liesel slipping in through the window,

Wet from a sudden thunderstorm,

But agrees to keep her secret.

The other children are frightened by the storm.

Maria sings The Lonely Goatherd to distract them.

Captain von Trapp arrives a month later from Vienna with Baroness Elsa Schrader and Max Detweiler.

Elsa tells Max that something is preventing the captain from marrying her.

She opines that only poor people have the time for great romances.

Rolf enters,

Looking for Liesel,

And greets him with Heil.

The captain orders him away,

Saying that he is Austrian,

Not German.

Maria and the children leapfrog in,

Wearing play clothes that she made from the old drapes in her room.

Infuriated,

The captain sends him off to change.

She tells him that the children need him to show his love for them,

And he angrily orders her back to the abbey.

As she apologizes,

They hear the children singing The Sound of Music,

Which she had taught them to welcome Elsa Schrader.

He joins in and embraces them.

Alone with Maria,

He asks her to stay,

Thanking her for bringing music back into the house.

Elsa is suspicious of her until she explains that she will be returning to the abbey in September.

The captain gives a party to introduce Elsa,

And guests argue over the Anschluss,

The Nazi-German annexation of Austria.

Kurt asks Maria to teach him to dance the Lendler.

When he fails to negotiate a complicated figure,

The captain steps in to demonstrate.

He and Maria dance until they come face to face,

And she breaks away,

Embarrassed and confused.

Discussing the expected marriage between Elsa and the captain,

Brigitte tells Maria that she thinks Maria and the captain are really in love with each other.

Elsa asks the captain to allow the children to say goodnight to the guests with a song.

Max is amazed at their talent and wants them for the Kaltzburg festival,

Which he is organizing.

The guests leave for the dining room,

And Maria slips out the front door with her luggage.

At the abbey,

Maria says that she is ready to take her monastic vows,

But the mother,

Abbas,

Realizes that she is running away from her feelings.

She tells her to face the captain and discover if they love each other,

And tells her to search for and find the life she was meant to live.

Act 2.

Max teaches the children how to sing on stage.

When the captain tries to lead them,

They complain that he is not doing it as Maria did.

He tells them that he has asked Elsa to marry him.

They try to cheer themselves up by singing My Favorite Things,

But are unsuccessful until they hear Maria singing on her way to rejoin them.

Learning of the wedding plans,

She decides to stay only until the captain can arrange for another governess.

Max and Elsa argue with the captain about the imminent Anschluss,

Trying to convince him that it is inevitable.

When he refuses to compromise on his opposition to it,

Elsa breaks off the engagement.

Alone,

The captain and Maria finally admit their love,

Desiring only to be an ordinary couple.

As they marry,

The nuns reprise Maria against the wedding processional.

While Maria and the captain are on their honeymoon,

Max prepares the children to perform at the Kaltzburg Festival.

Herzler,

The galleiter of the region,

Demands to know why they are not flying the flag of Nazi Germany now that the Anschluss has occurred.

The captain and Maria return early from their honeymoon before the festival.

In view of the Nazi German occupation,

The captain decides the children should not sing at the event.

Max argues that they would sing for Austria,

But the captain points out that it no longer exists.

Maria and Liesl discuss romantic love.

Maria predicts that in a few years Liesl will be married.

Rolf enters with a telegram that offers the captain a commission in the German navy,

And Liesl is upset to discover that Rolf is now a committed Nazi.

The captain consults Maria and decides that they must secretly flee Austria.

German Admiral von Schreiber arrives to find out why Captain von Trapp has not answered the telegram.

He explains that the German navy holds him in high regard,

Offers him the commission,

And tells him to report immediately to Bremerhaven to assume command.

Maria says that he cannot leave immediately,

As they are all singing in the festival concert,

And the admiral agrees to wait.

At the concert,

After the von Trapps seeing an elaborate reprise of Do Re Mi,

Max brings out the captain's guitar.

Captain von Trapp sings Edelweiss as a goodbye to his homeland,

While using Austria's national flower as a symbol to declare his loyalty to the country.

Max asks for an encore and announces that this is the von Trapp family's last chance to sing together,

As the honor guard waits to escort the captain to his new command.

While the judges decide on the prizes,

The von Trapps sing So Long,

Farewell reprise,

Leaving the stage in small groups.

Max then announces the runner's up,

Stalling as much as possible.

When he announces that the first prize goes to the von Trapps and they do not appear,

The Nazis start a search.

The family hides at the abbey,

And sister Margareta tells them that the borders have been closed.

Rolf comes upon them and calls his lieutenant,

But after seeing Liesel,

He changes his mind and tells him they aren't there.

The Nazis leave,

And the von Trapps flee over the Alps as the nuns reprise,

Climb Every Mountain.

Columbia Masterworks recorded the original Broadway cast album at the Columbia 30th Street Studio in New York City,

A week after the show's 1959 opening.

The album was the label's first deluxe package,

In a gatefold jacket,

Priced one dollar higher than previous cast albums.

It was number one on Billboard's Best Selling Albums chart for 16 weeks in 1960.

It was released on CD from Sony in the Columbia Broadway Masterworks series.

In 1959,

Singer Patti Page recorded the title song from the show for Mercury Records on the day that the musical opened on Broadway.

The 1961 London production was recorded by EMI and released on the His Master's Voice label,

And later reissued on CD in 1997 on the Broadway Angel label.

The 1961 Australian cast recording was the first time a major overseas production featuring Australian artists was transferred to disc.

Reviews

Excellent article, except I only heard a few minutes of it. Which is to say….success! Did you sing anything from the Sound of Music that I missed? 😉

I like this story. I'll listen again since I fell asleep. Imagine that Benjamin!

Danke!! While truly interesting 🤔, out in less than 5 minutes!!🫠😴😴😴