The picnic is missing in Maria Augusta von Trapp’s The Story of the von Trapp Family Singers, Liebeneiner’s film Die Trapp-Familie, and the Broadway musical of The Sound of Music.
Robert Wise and screenwriter Ernest Lehman wrote it for The Sound of Music. Set on the slope of a mountain in the Austrian Alps above Salzburg, it’s a cinematic ploy combing majestic scenery with a friendly, convivial gathering of happy people at a picnic.
“Do-Re-Mi.” two wicker hampers sit next to a blue blanket with the remnants of a picnic—bread, cake, and bottles of fizzy—while Maria, their nanny, and the seven von Trapp family children sing. Good picnic fun and almost magical.
Featured Image: Food, music, mountains. Maria (Julie Andrews with guitar) sings with Trapp family children. Robert Wise’s The Sound of Music.
See: Maria Augusta von Trapp. The Story of the von Trapp Family Singers. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1950; Robert Wise. The Sound of Music (1965). Screenplay by Ernest Lehman based on The Sound of Music (1959); Music by Richard Rodgers, Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, Book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse based on Maria von Trapp’s The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, and Wolfgang Liebeneiner’s film Die Trapp-Familie (1956); Wolfgang Liebeneiner. Die Trapp-Familie (1956). George Hurdalek and Herbert Reinecker based on Maria von Trapp’s memoir.