Sound of Music museum opens in Salzburg, blending film lore with real von Trapp history

A new museum devoted to The Sound of Music opened on Sunday in Salzburg, the Austrian city where much of the 1965 film was shot and which draws several hundred thousand fans of the musical each year.

The Sound of Music Salzburg museum is housed in the 17th-century Hellbrunn Palace, a location used for scenes in the Julie Andrews film. Organisers describe it as the first venue of its kind dedicated to the Hollywood classic, which won five Academy Awards including best picture.

Among those present at the opening was Elisabeth von Trapp, granddaughter of Georg and Agatha von Trapp, whose family story inspired the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical and the later film. She continues to lead guided tours of movie sites in the city.

"It is intimate enough so you really have a beautiful sense of the storyline of both the Sound of Music and the Trapp family singers — my relatives. I'm very proud of that," she said of the museum.

She also offered a correction for film fans. Her father, Werner, was one of the original Trapp Family Singers, but appears in the movie under a different name. "My father is depicted in the movie as Kurt, his name was Werner von Trapp. Just to set the record straight," she said.

The exhibition sets out to separate the real von Trapp family from their stage and screen portrayal. Set against Nazi Germany's annexation of Austria in 1938, the familiar story follows a governess, Maria, who teaches seven children to sing before marrying their widowed father, Georg von Trapp. Museum officials note that the real Georg, a submarine commander in the Austro-Hungarian navy, was not the strict paternalist shown on screen but a considerate, if much-burdened, father.

Visitors can see nearly 450 objects, including props and costumes from the film, cinema posters and recordings of the music. A centrepiece is the gazebo where Liesl von Trapp and her suitor Rolf sing the duet "Sixteen Going on Seventeen."

Curator Matthias Bergsmann said many fans arriving in Salzburg do not realise the film is based on a true story. If they come away understanding that a real family once lived in the city and now lives in the United States or elsewhere around the world, he said, the museum will have achieved its aim.

Early visitors responded to the mix of film memorabilia and family history. Shannon Kramer, 32, of Chicago, said she enjoyed seeing the different translations on display as well as the immersive screen that wraps around, and found the puppet show a neat touch. John Combs, 66, of Dayton, Ohio, called the chance to look at the history and real events behind the movie an incredible experience. His wife Terry, 65, said she loved the combination of the film and the real von Trapp family, which she had read about over the years, and that meeting Elisabeth von Trapp brought it full circle.

Elisabeth von Trapp joined fans in song while walking through the garden where parts of the movie were filmed, and later spoke of what she sees as the family's enduring lesson. "They stayed very loyal to each other. They were true to each other. That's what the story is about. And they survived together," she said. "And that's — here we see — they had wings because of their singing."

The exhibition is open daily until November 1. It is scheduled to reopen next March.