The Sound of Music It follows the love story between a renegade nun who treats her seven children more like cadets than children, and a stern Austrian sea captain (Christopher Plummer), a stern employer-turned-boss. Set against the dramatic backdrop of the rise of Nazism in 1930s Austria, it's a story that seems almost too perfect to be true – and while it's based on the memoirs of the real Maria von Trapp, The story takes a lot of creative freedom to add dramatic tension.
Maria's memoir was turned into a live stage musical before being adapted into a beloved musical again. The broadest strokes remain the same: Maria marries into the family instead of becoming a nun, the von Trapps bring their music to the country before fleeing the rise of Nazism. But some details change. Character ages and timelines are mixed up to serve the narrative, and some prominent characters are fictional while others are omitted from the story entirely. Julie Andrew's iconic portrayal of Maria von Tapp is legendary, but Maria's portrayal of herself in her memoir reveals a different life.
The Sound of Music is Based on a Play Based on a True Story
Memoirs of Maria von Trapp The Story of the Trapp Family Singers In 1959, it was adapted into a live musical called Live Music by Rodgers and Hammerstein's playwriting team. The Sound of Music. Six years later, the stage musical was turned into an Academy Award-winning musical of the same name.
The the timeline of events was condensed to create a sense of urgency. In the film, Maria and Captain von Trapp marry a month before the family flees Austria, but in reality, Maria and the Captain were married for 11 years and had two children before they even left the country. Similarly, the film climaxes with the von Trapps dramatically escaping the Nazis at a public singing competition by crossing the Alps on foot. In real life, the departure was less dramatic: the von Trapps apparently left Austria by train for Italy under the guise of a family vacation before fleeing to the United States.
Other details were adjusted to increase the stakes. In the film, the von Trapp family is just starting their singing career, but in real life they have performed as an internationally known group. In fact, it was a certain career that contributed to their immigrant status in the United States. However, in the film, Captain von Trapp is extremely wealthy, with the Nazi government holding the purse strings as a form of control, when in reality, von Trapp's wealth was already affected by the collapse of their bank.
How True to the True Story The Sound of Music Is
Even the characterizations are based solely on real people, although dates and facts are certainly altered to suit the story. Some characters were added to create emotional complications, while others were combined for simplicity. The captain's 10 children were combined into seven, and one named Maria was removed to avoid confusion. Characters Rolfe and Baroness Elsa von Schrader have no fictional counterparts. Rolfe serves as a romantic interest for the young Leslie von Trapp and a figurehead for the burgeoning Nazi movement, while the Baroness adds a complicating factor to the simple romance between Maria and the Captain.
The real Maria was problematically not a free-spirited novice, but a woman with a strong sense of duty.
Even the characters of Maria and the Captain were shaped by creative liberties. In the film, Maria brings love and laughter to the house, while the Captain begins the film as a strict disciplinarian who calls his children with individual dog whistles. In real life, the children described their father as warm and kind. The real Maria was problematically not a free-spirited novice, but a woman with a strong sense of duty. In The Sound of Music in the film, as in real life, Maria fell in love with the children before she fell in love with their father.