There are many who know the “do-re-mi” of Fräulein Maria, the nun who became a governess. This song and film are now a classic, with a large fan base.
And still the popularity continues. After a huge boom, there are still Sing-a-long film and theater performances. Its continued popularity is further underscored by our global search behavior; it is still widely googled today.
But is “The Sound of Music” classic?
Let’s look at some aspects. The story is based on true facts, and you could say that the film rests on a libretto. The singing is as in an opera buffa or is it a singspiel? The drama is light, the flight propitious, the singing voices accompany each other – no counter-singing as, for example, Mozart three voices have their own story line and meet and part ways again and again. Both story and music are too predictable for me, admittedly well told and sung but lacking deeper layers. In the film, I do see references to the time in which the story takes place, and the horror of the period. The Kapitän (Georg von Trapp) raising his children with a whistle?
Long ago I once went to see Aida the musical and during the performance a feeling of missing out came over me. It’s the same thing I have with this movie, it speaks to you quickly, enters my ear canal easily, the risk for an earworm is there, but it doesn’t linger. Like the Kapitän’s “Edelweiss,” which inspired Elvis’ “Wooden heart.” I’m not surprised or led astray, and I don’t discover new things when I listen to it again. Musically, it’s too much of a one-way street. If I use this analogy: it’s like a street with uneven intersections, where the driver has the right of way everywhere, and even a traffic circle causes the car to go straight. The film and music are well-made and, partly because of the story, very entertaining.