The view down from Schafberg, reached by a mountain railway, over the Wolfgangsee in the Austrian Alps east of Salzburg
I
t’s only an hour until show time in Salzburg and, right now, tonight’s star is wedged sideways between the green folds of the scenery, looking a little lifeless. Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music is to be performed here, in the city where the musical is set, and where the real Trapp Family Singers once lived. Maria, the singing nun turned fairy stepmother made famous by Julie Andrews, is sandwiched between the scenery because, when the time comes, the meadows will spring into motion at exactly the same moment she does. Here at the Marionette Theatre, the hills really are alive.