Maria augusta kutschera biography of william shakespeare
Hazel Stainer
Dame Julie Andrews (b. 1935) is famous for her portrayal of Maria von Trapp in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical film The Sound of Music (1965). The musical is based on The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, written by the real Maria von Trapp in 1945. Maria Augusta von Trapp was the stepmother of the Trapp Family Singers, who inspired the singing children in the famous show.
Maria was born on 26th January 1905 while her parents, Augusta and Karl Kutschera, were travelling on a train from the Austrian Tyrol to Vienna. Sadly, Augusta died from pneumonia when Maria was only two-years-old, and the young child was sent to live with her father’s cousin. She rarely saw her father because he spent much of his time travelling. After Karl died when Maria was nine, her foster mother’s son became her legal guardian.
Uncle Franz, Maria’s guardian, unknowingly suffered from mental illness and treated Maria poorly. He often punished her for things she did not do, which affected how Maria behaved at school. She stopped trying to be good because she figured she would only get in trouble anyway. Maria finally escaped from Uncle Franz by running away at the age of 15 to stay with a friend. She had plans to become a tutor, but no one would hire her because she looked too young. Eventually, she got a job umpiring tennis, a game she had never played.
Eventually, Maria earned a scholarship to study at the State Teachers College for Progressive Education in Vienna. She graduated in 1923 at the age of 18. The following year, Maria became a postulant at Nonnberg Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in Salzburg. Maria intended to become a nun; meanwhile, she worked in the Abbey school.
Those familiar with the storyline of The Sound of Music know Maria did not become a nun. Instead, in 1926, the Abbey sent her to teach one of the seven children of a widowed naval commander. Georg von Trapp (1880-1947) had rec
The Literary Tradition behind the Adaptation
By Olga A. Limnios
The Sound of Music, an American classic, is perhaps one of the most beloved stories of immigrant experiences. It is a musical, it is a film, and it is an adaptation of the real-life of the von Trapp family. Maria Augusta Kutschera (aka Maria von Trapp) wrote au autobiographical account in 1949 calling it The Story of the Trapp Family Singers. The Mary Martin musical (1959) and the Julie Andrews film (1965) are both based on Maria’s recollections. They are not the only adaptations, however. In fact, the American rights to Maria’s memoir were purchased from the Germans, to whom she sold the right to her book. Two German films Die Trapp-Familie (1956), and Die Trapp-Familiein Amerika (1958) were popular European adaptations. When the story was re-made for the American audiences, Maria was content with her own character. Her only objection was that “Mary Martin and Julie Andrews ‘were too gentle—like girls out of Bryn Mawr’” (Joan Gearin, “Movie vs. Reality: The Real Story of the Von Trapp Family,” Prologue Magazine, Winter 2005, Vol. 37, No. 4. archives.gov).
At this point, instead of examining the discrepancies between the biography and the adaptations one by one, it might be more interesting to consider why the discrepancies were necessary and what implications they entailed. The fact that Maria became a governess and Captain von Trapp the cold, brooding widower were not accidental choices. They positioned The Sound of Music squarely into a popular literary tradition known for its success. The character of a governess in European literary tradition has been a favorite for a long time. From Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre to William Makepeace Thackeray’s Becky Sharp, these women have been capturing attention by virtue of their intellect, resourcefulness, and patience, but mostly by their nearly fantastical turn of fate—going from being a lonely, humble “genteel prisoner of her res Mother of the world-famous Trapp Family Singers, whose flight from Nazi-occupied Austria in 1938 inspired the musical play and motion picture The Sound of Music . Name variations: Baroness Maria Von Trapp. Born Maria Augusta Kutschera on January 26, 1905, on a speeding train en route to Vienna, Austria; died on March 28, 1987, at Copley Hospital, Morrisville, Vermont; daughter of Karl Kutschera and Augusta (Rainer) Kutschera; educated in Austrian primary and secondary schools; graduated from the State Teachers College for Progressive Education, Vienna; married Baron Georg Ritter Von Trapp (1880–1947), on November 26, 1927; children: Rosmarie (b. 1929); Eleonore (b. 1931); Johannes (b. 1939); stepchildren: Rupert (1911–1992); Agathe (b. 1913); Maria (b. 1914); Werner (b. 1915); Hedwig (1917–1972); Johanna (1919–1994); Martina (1921–1951). Merenti (Papal Decoration, 1948); Golden Book Award of Catholic Writers Guild for The Story of the Baroness Maria Augusta von Trapp, the one-time religious novice who led her singing family in an escape from Nazi-occupied Austria that inspired the stage and screen musical “The Sound of Music,” died Saturday night at a hospital in Morrisville, Vt. The baroness, 82, had undergone surgery for gangrene of the small intenstine Wednesday at Copley Hospital in Morrisville, about 5 miles from the famed Trapp Family Lodge at Stowe. Johannes von Trapp, youngest of the 10 Trapp children, said his mother’s surgery was not successful and “her heart simply stopped beating” late Saturday afternoon. He said members of the family would meet this morning to complete funeral arrangements. Recognized as the guiding force behind the celebrated Trapp Family Singers, known to generations of music lovers through nearly two decades of successful concert touring in the United States, Canada and Europe, it was also the baroness’ decision to allow her family’s story to be made into a stage musical in the late 1950s. She had refused all previous offers, but finally consented when it was suggested that royalties might be used for her missionary work. Born Jan. 26, 1905, aboard a train en route to Vienna from her moth er’s home village in the Austrian Tirol, Maria Augusta Kutschera was orphaned at 6 and became the ward of a man she described as a “passionate socialist and violent anti-Catholic” who saw to it that she grew up outside the church. Coverted to Catholicism at 18, while in her final year at the State Teachers College for Progressive Education in Vienna, she was accepted as a candidate for novitiate at Nonnberg Benedictine Convent in Salzburg. Later stage and screen portrayals of her in those years, she said, caused her “deep embarrassment.” No ‘Goody-Goody’ “They showed me as such a goody-goody,” she said. “A kind of errant child. I was nothing of the kind! I was a pest, pure and simple; intractable, obstinate, trouble
Maria augusta kutschera biography of william shakespeare
Maria augusta kutschera biography of william shakespeare in 400 words
Maria augusta kutschera biography of william shakespeare
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Baroness Von Trapp Dies; Inspired ‘Sound of Music’