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Come alive with the sound of the Von Trapps

By BARBARA L. FREDRICKSEN
Published January 12, 2007

Many music lovers have been aware of Austria's von Trapp family singers since the 1930s, but it wasn't until the movie The Sound of Music was released in 1965 that the whole world learned of them.

Since then, the mere mention of "von Trapp" starts people humming, "The hills are alive with the sound of music ..." either mentally or aloud.

On Jan. 20 the great-grandchildren of the original Capt. von Trapp will perform songs from that Broadway show and movie musical, as well as folk songs and classics, at Pasco-Hernando Community College's performing arts center.

"The tickets are selling very well," said Arla Altman, who heads the sponsoring group, the PHCC Foundation.

The four descendants in the show are Sofia, 18; Melanie, 16; Amanda, 15; and Justin, 12. Their show consists of singing and stories about the von Trapp family, before their lives in America and after.

And busy lives they have been, with stage shows, television appearances on every major network, music recordings, and tours through Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea and the United States.

They've been on the Grand Ole Opry and sung with major orchestras in Boston, Atlanta, Detroit, Phoenix and Minnesota and been featured in the New York Times, Parade, People, Life, Good Housekeeping and dozens of newspapers.

The children once portrayed the characters based on their famous ancestors in The Sound of Music at the North Carolina Theatre in Raleigh. That show set attendance records and later did a one-week stint in Las Vegas.

Their family's story is quite different from the stage and movie version, though, according to Joan Gearin's family biography, Movie vs. Reality: The Real Story of the von Trapp Family in The National Archives.

The differences were mainly dates and sequences of events and, not unexpectedly, there was much less romance than in the Broadway show or movie.

What is true is that the family patriarch was strongly anti-Nazi, refusing to fly the Nazi flag at his family's home or allow his children to perform for Hitler's birthday, both very risky actions in 1930s Austria.

Despite the popularity of his family in their homeland and the possibility of making a lot of money, von Trapp realized his refusal to compromise his principles put his family in danger. They fled the country, not over the mountains, as in the movie, but on an uneventful train ride to Italy, where he held citizenship.

The family came to America within the year and, after some hassles with immigration, entered the country permanently. The von Trapps established a guest lodge in Vermont; it is still run by von Trapp descendents and is very popular with tourists.

The von Trapp descendants who will perform at PHCC have been making a Christmas movie that is scheduled for release in December.

Sounds of music

What: The von Trapp Children.

Where: Pasco-Hernando Community College Performing Arts Center, 10230 Ridge Road, New Port Richey.

When: 8 p.m. Jan. 20.

Tickets: $26-$35. Call (727)-816-3707 in west Pasco; toll-free elsewhere, 1-800-595-4849, or online at www.phcc.edu/tix.

[Last modified January 12, 2007, 01:26:29]