F A CTS

While The Sound of Music was generally based on Maria’s book The Story of the Trapp Family Singers (1949), there were many changes in the play.

There were 10 - not 7 - von Trapp children. Their names, ages, and genders were changed in the play.

The family was musically inclined before Maria arrived, but she did teach them to sing madrigals.

Maria and Georg married a year after she arrived as governess.

Though caring and loving, the real Maria wasn’t always as sweet as the fictional Maria. She had outbursts of yelling, throwing things, and slamming doors. Afterwards, her anger was relieved, and good humor would return.

The family did not secretly escape over the Alps to Switzerland, carrying suitcases and musical instruments. They went by train to Italy.

Georg was born in 1880 in Zadar (now in Croatia), then part of the AustroHungarian Empire. Zadar became part of Italy in 1920, and Georg was thus an Italian citizen. He became a national hero commanding submarines as a captain in the Austrian navy during World War I.

He married Agathe Whitehead, granddaughter of the inventor of the torpedo, in 1912. They had seven children. Agathe died in 1922 of scarlet fever. The family was devastated and couldn’t bear living where they had been so happy, so Georg sold the home and bought an estate in Salzburg.

Georg was far from the detached, aloof family patriarch who even disapproved of music as portrayed in the The Sound of Music. He was actually a gentle, warmhearted dad who enjoyed musical activities with his family.

The von Trapps’ priest was their musical director for 20+ years. Max Detweiler, the pushy yet lovable music promoter, is fictional.