When last we saw Maria von Trapp and her adopted family of angel-voiced children, they were fleeing across the Alps from Austria, pursued by Nazis to the strains of Edelweiss.‘‘So long, farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, goodbye’’ perhaps, but not quite the end of the story. Because now, some 40 years after the musical and the movie The Sound of Music, the hills are alive once again with a new generation of von Trapps making sugar-sweet music.They are the great-grandchildren of Captain Georg von Trapp, the retired naval officer played in the movie by Christopher Plummer who falls for the impetuous ex-nun Maria, one of Julie Andrews’ most beloved roles. Surely even the most lonely goatherd in the world has seen The Sound of Music and the von Trapp children — Liesl, Louisa, Marta, Friedrich, Brigitta, Gretl and Kurt — who grow to love the free-spirited Fraulein Maria after first torturing her when she becomes their governess. Of the original seven children, three are still alive — Werner, along with older sisters Agathe (Liesl in the film), who is 90 this year, and Maria (Gretl). Now meet the new Von Trapp Children singing group — Melanie, Sofia, Amanda and Justin — born and raised not in the Austrian Alps, but in equally rugged Montana.They have just released a CD featuring a couple of songs from the musical — Edelweiss and Lonely Goatherd — along with such classics as Danny Boy and Amazing Grace. Close your eyes and it’s like hearing the darlings from the movie all over again. There has been such a positive response from their appearances that they are working on Volume 2 and an album of Christmas music. After the von Trapps came to America, the original kids sang together for 27 years, touring the US. But despite the musical heritage of their grandfather Werner (Kurt in the movie), the new kids’ own parents are not in the least musical. Father Stefan operates a stone masonry business and mom Annie is busy organising the lives of the four children she schools at home.‘‘The kids have always been singing. They used to sing along with Barney (the dinosaur) on TV and that may have had a lot to do with it,’’ Annie von Trapp said in an interview.Although they sang in churches, they didn’t really take it too seriously until last year when their grandfather was unable to visit them in Montana.‘‘Opa (grandfather Werner) had a stroke and couldn’t come to visit so I said to the kids ‘Why not put some songs on a CD and send them to him?’,’’ Annie said.‘‘Dad listened to that CD while recuperating. I blame him for all this,’’ said Stefan. Their parents would be quite happy if the kids wanted to pursue careers in music. ‘‘But the neat thing is that they are really getting an understanding of their heritage,’’ said Annie. (Reuters)
