‘Sound of Music’ Is Coming Home

It may have introduced the world to the land of crisp apple strudel and schnitzel with noodles, but “The Sound of Music” has never been one of Austria’s favorite things.

Thanks to the musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein -- especially the 1965 film version starring Julie Andrews -- much of the world knows and loves the story of the singing Von Trapp family, who fled Austria after the Nazis took over in 1938.

Few in Austria, however, have even seen the film, which was not released in theaters here and wasn’t shown on Austrian television until the mid-1990s.

That lack of exposure is due to end this month when the respected Viennese opera house, the Volksoper, premieres the musical. The new production will give Austrians a belated glimpse of the pop culture phenomenon that, as the Volksoper’s website puts it, “created an image of Austria unknown in this country.”

This will be the first full-scale theatrical production of “The Sound of Music” in Austria, although an avant-garde Viennese theater scored a hit some years back with an ironic take on the musical.

Rudolf Berger, director of the Volksoper, conceded that the production would have to overcome no small amount of native disdain.

“You always hear that it’s such a kitsch image of Austria,” he said. “To a certain extent there is a prejudice against the piece.”

Although not many Austrians have seen “The Sound of Music,” everyone has an opinion about it, Berger said. Many say it promotes an Alpine cliche of lonely yodeling goatherds and lederhosen.

As befits this city of high culture, the Volksoper is assuaging Austrian fears of rampant cheesiness by treating the musical chestnut with the seriousness it claims it deserves.

The opera house’s promotional materials promise that the new production, in German with English supertitles, will “prove that the musical is also worth staging without the Alpine kitsch trimmings.”

To that end the Volksoper has hired the French Canadian team of director Renaud Doucet and set and costume designer Andre Barbe, whose resumes are short on musicals and long on classical opera. Erich Kunzel, maestro of the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, is conducting.

Doucet dismissed the notion that “The Sound of Music” wouldn’t be “The Sound of Music” without the kitsch. He said the musical was “fantastically well written,” with timeless and universal appeal.

“Is ‘The Sound of Music’ popular because it is kitsch? No, it’s about the message, the music, the simplicity, the honesty,” Doucet said.

Questions of taste aside, Austrians may have also been put off by the subject matter.

“The Sound of Music,” however upbeat, touches on Austria’s complicity with the Nazi regime, a past that the country is still coming to grips with.

Berger thinks that may account for the musical’s relative obscurity here.

“It shows a lot of people who behaved badly in this country, and that did not help it to be popular,” he said. “But hopefully that has changed.”

Doucet believes that audiences will discover that “The Sound of Music” offers a surprisingly nuanced view of Austria’s wartime history.

It depicts the gamut of Austrian reaction, from those who welcomed the Nazis with open arms to those willing to appease the powers that be, to the heroism of a “family that said no,” Doucet said.

“ ‘The Sound of Music’ is about freedom and taking destiny into your own hands,” he said. “That is why it is anti-kitsch -- because it’s real, it’s touching.”

Austrian theatergoers appear willing to see what the fuss is about. Pre-sales for the musical, which opens Saturday and runs through June, have been strong; by the beginning of February about 18,000 tickets had been sold. “People are curious to be finally able to see the piece,” Berger said.

The target audience is Austrian, but Berger hopes that tourists, particularly from the U.S. and Asia, where “The Sound of Music” enjoys cult status, will also jump at the chance to see the musical in-country, even if the songs have been translated into German.

“The Sound of Music” has long been a tourism cash cow for Salzburg, the quaint western Austrian town that was home to the real-life Von Trapp family.

According to the Salzburg tourism board, 75% of American tourists going to Salzburg do so because of the movie, which was filmed on location in 1964. In fact, “The Sound of Music” was voted the greatest “travel-inspiring movie” in a recent poll by the magazine Budget Travel.

The settings for the film’s classic scenes can be visited on one of Salzburg’s many “Sound of Music” tours. Among them are the Mirabell Gardens (“Do-Re-Mi”) and the Nonnberg Abbey, where high-spirited novice nun Maria lived before finding love with the widowed Baron von Trapp and his seven children.

“ ‘The Sound of Music’ is enormously important for Salzburg, as important as Mozart,” said Maria Altendorfer of the city’s tourism board.

Now tourists who haven’t had their fill with the Original Sound of Music Tour, the Sound of Music by Hot-Air Balloon and the Sound of Music Dinner Show can add a Vienna stop to their itinerary.

Although the Volksoper production will accommodate Austrian sensitivities, Doucet said that “Sound of Music” lovers needn’t fear that their beloved classic has been tampered with.

“They will get to see it with real Austrians,” he said, “in a country where tradition means something.”

The Volksoper may also stage “The Sound of Music” in the original English for the 2006 season, depending on the success of the upcoming run, Berger said.