Maria Von Trapp and Her Family
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NEWSPAPERS IN EDUCATION AND THE 5TH AVENUE THEATRE PRESENT A LOOK INSIDE LIVE ON STAGE AT THE 5TH AVENUE THEATRE NOV 24, 2015 - JAN 3, 2016 Photo by Mark Kitaoka $29 STUDENT GROUP TICKETS AVAILABLE FOR MOST PERFORMANCES Call (888) 625-1418 for more information 2015/16 SEASON SPONSORS OFFICIAL AIRLINE PRODUCTION SPONSOR CONTRIBUTING SPONSOR RESTAURANT SPONSOR Rodgers and Hammerstein, the men behind the magic The multiple award-winning musical The Sound of Music was the last collaboration between composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II. Together they wrote some of the most beloved shows of the golden age of musicals. RICHARD RODGERS composed his first songs OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN II at a summer camp, then wrote music for college was born into a show business shows at Columbia University. A friend introduced family. His grandfather won him to a smart young lyric writer, Larry Hart, who and lost several fortunes shared his ambitious artistic goals. The two wrote building theaters and opera several clever scores, but they attracted little houses, and his father attention and Rodgers seriously considered an managed the biggest offer to quit and sell children’s underwear. vaudeville palace in Manhattan. They finally got their big break in 1925 with a The family wanted him to small benefit show that won raves from the critics. become a lawyer, but show For the next fifteen years, Rodgers & Hart were business was in his blood and one of the top teams on Broadway, writing 28 he quit law school to write stage musicals and over 500 songs. lyrics for Broadway musicals. Broadway musicals were different then. They Oscar worked with many of were “musical comedies,” built around hit songs, the top composers of the day. popular comedians and singing stars. Rodgers He had a huge hit with the & Hart did their best to tell adventurous stories groundbreaking 1927 musical with individual musical styles. Most of their shows Show Boat, with music by are now forgotten, but dozens of their songs are Jerome Kern. This was not a Courtesy of Rodgers & Hammerstein: An Imagem Company, www.rnh.com now standards, cherished by pop singers and jazz typical musical comedy, but artists. a musical play that treated For years Hammerstein wasn’t able to follow serious themes, including race relations, and Show Boat with another hit. The Great covered a 35-year span of American cultural Depression of the 1930s caused producers to history. back away from unusual, risk-taking shows, and by 1940 Oscar wondered if his time had passed. n the early 1940s, a hit Broadway had ever seen, Now Rodgers & Hammerstein a few months after the group of producers asked running for over five years at were Broadway’s musical opening. IRodgers and Hart to turn a time when even the most kings. Together, they wrote a Rodgers lived till an old play into a musical. successful shows lasted only a total of nine shows in the next 1979. He continued The plot concerned pioneer season or two. 14 years, five of which are to compose — at first farm folk and cowboys in It also changed forever the among the greatest hits of all writing his own lyrics early-twentieth century way shows were constructed. time: Oklahoma!, Carousel, (including some for Oklahoma. Larry Hart, who The artistic elements of South Pacific, The King and I the Sound of Music Sponsored Newspapers In Education Content In Education Newspapers Sponsored was battling ill health and Oklahoma! were tightly and The Sound of Music. In movie), then working serious addictions, said no. integrated: book, score, addition, they wrote a hit with a succession of He was a city boy and had no dances, scenery, costumes, movie musical, State Fair, and writers, including interest in rural “hicks.” This and orchestrations all worked a made-for-television musical, Martin Charnin, Sheldon gave Richard Rodgers the together to tell the story. If the Cinderella, which aired live Harnick, and Oscar chance he had been seeking plot didn’t require it, it didn’t in 1957 and was seen by 107 Hammerstein’s neighbor Courtesy of Rodgers & Hammerstein: to work with a more stable happen. Oklahoma! was the million people (60 percent of and protégé, Stephen An Imagem Company, www.rnh.com partner. With Hart’s blessing, second of Hammerstein’s the American population!) Sondheim. Rodgers asked his old friend great musical plays, building The Sound of Music was Oscar Hammerstein to step in. on the innovations he had the team’s last show, and The show they created, introduced in Show Boat. “Edelweiss” their last song. Oklahoma!, was the biggest Hammerstein died in 1960, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2015 | 28, 2015 OCTOBER WEDNESDAY, 2 All the sounds of the earth are like music orking with Oscar straitjacket, he had the freedom Hammerstein, Richard to explore themes dear to his WRodgers became a heart. Oscar wrote slowly — he an island in the South Pacific, in the mind, images that different composer. With Larry would sometimes spend weeks 19th-century court of the King of would quickly translate into Hart, Rodgers always took the finding just the right words to say Siam, in a fairy tale kingdom or personality, emotion, and plot. lead. He would write a tune, then what was in his heart. in contemporary San Francisco’s And being a lover of nature, many Hart would fit words to it. Most This freer verse prompted Rodgers Chinatown. of his images were drawn from the of these tunes followed the “hit to alter his compositional style, Oscar knew that lyrics aren’t natural world. song” pattern of the day — usually leaving behind the short pop song exactly poetry. You can read a poem Think of Maria’s opening 32 bars long, built in four 8-bar forms he had excelled at in the ’20s over and over until you puzzle out song, “The Sound of Music.” phrases. and ’30s. Now his music found the author’s meaning. But a lyric Hammerstein wants us to know that But Hammerstein liked to write longer lines and unusual colors to arrives at the pace and rhythm of she loves music, and that she often lyrics first, often creating long match Oscar’s far-ranging stories. music — each word has only a brief seeks comfort and spiritual strength scenes of dramatic verse that told a A Rodgers & Hammerstein show moment to deliver its message. in the mountains outside the Abbey. story in unexpected ways. Without might be set on the western frontier, Hammerstein learned to create the tight constraints of the hit song in a fishing village in Maine, on vivid images in the listener’s Content In Education Newspapers Sponsored Here are just a few of the nature images Oscar Hammerstein embeds in the song “The Sound of Music” and others in the musical. “The hills are alive with “To sing through the night, “Wild geese that fly with the the sound of music.” like a lark who is learning moon on their wings.” to pray.” | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2015 28, 2015 OCTOBER WEDNESDAY, “To laugh like a brook “Climb ev’ry mountain, “How do you hold a as it trips and falls.” ford ev’ry stream, follow moonbeam in your hand?” ev’ry rainbow, till you find your dream.” “Snowflakes that stay on “Blossom of snow, may you my nose and eyelashes.” bloom and grow forever.” 3 Climb ev’ry mountain: The real story of the von Trapp family or many people, the mere mention of While studying in Vienna, Maria fell in love Later, after she had graduated, Maria went on Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound with the rich musical heritage the city had to a weeklong hiking trip in the Alps. One day Fof Music conjures fond memories of offer. She attended classical music concerts during the hike, Maria was overcome by the hearing the music of the 1959 Tony Award- of the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna beauty of the nature around her, she flung her winning musical, or seeing the 1965 Academy Boys’ Choir as well as opera. She visited the arms in the air and decided in that moment to Award-winning movie for the very first time. cathedrals and churches to hear the music that give up everything and devote her life to God. With enchanting songs, beautiful lyrics and a came from within. charming story of a family bound by love for each other, love for music and a will to survive, it is a timeless classic. While the story is based on the historic, real life von Trapp family, both the musical and the movie tell a fictionalized and somewhat romanticized version. Here we tell the true story of Maria von Trapp and her family. Maria von Trapp Maria August Kutschera was born on a train bound for Vienna, Austria on January 25, 1905. When her mother died of pneumonia Maria was only two years old. Her father sent her to live in Kagran on the outskirts of Vienna with his cousin, a woman in her 60s. Maria had four foster brothers and sisters, but only one of them lived at home and she was much older. With no children her age living at home, she was extremely lonely. She saw her father only occasionally in Vienna. After her father died when Maria was only nine years old, Uncle Franz became her legal guardian. He was a judge, married to her foster mother’s daughter. Uncle Franz was a cruel man who would punish her, often violently, Sponsored Newspapers In Education Content In Education Newspapers Sponsored for no reason.