Poor Baroness Schrader

What a lovely evening.  I can only imagine how delicious the meal was, some type of schnitzel – my preference is the Wiener Schnitzel – with spaetzle, red cabbage, and sauerkraut, probably topped off with an apple streudel.  And the wine?  Something extraordinary.  The Captain is a patriot, so maybe an Austrian red, a zweigelt or blaufränkisch, followed by a nice dessert wine, a riesling perhaps.

Then the walk out onto the terrace, thinking happy thoughts of her pending nuptials.  What gift to purchase Georg?  Where to honeymoon?  She would need to reprimand Cook for her too delicious meal, which might ruin her figure.  Such concerns.

How can one pity a Baroness?  Someone with all that “lovely money” as professional moocher (and I know a little something about mooching) Max Detweiler said?  And yet despite her beauty and sophistication, there she is on the balcony, trying to distract the addled Georg from thoughts of Maria, the sometime nun with the chop-crop ‘do.

The Sound of Music: an Annual Obsession

If this scenario doesn’t sound familiar, then you haven’t watched the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music every Easter for the last ten years.  Or is it twenty?  I lose track.

The Baroness is so gracious, so composed, despite the Captain’s sad and almost reluctant, “It’s no use.”  She has to gather her things and make her way back to Vienna.  Does a Baroness travel light?  She doesn’t give me that impression.  She looks like she’s the type of woman that you wouldn’t want to get behind going through airport security.

Slinking Out

How quickly can a Baroness slink out of a mansion?  We imagine she runs back to the room and packs in a jiff, a car is waiting at the door, and off she goes.  Five, ten minutes tops.  But is that realistic?  Does she change her outfit?  Doesn’t her class of people have travel clothes?  She’s not wearing pajamas and slippers like our current crop of travel misfits.  Does she stop for a cry in her room?  Might she crack a heel heading up, or down, the imposing staircase?  It’s been known to happen.

She doesn’t have a lot of time to get going.  I can’t imagine the Captain wasting a moment approaching Maria in the gazebo.  As soon as he turns to the Baroness and says, “It’s no use…  When two people talk of marriage…” and she responds, “Don’t say another word, Georg,” it’s on.  I imagine him looking down the hall after the Baroness, waiting impatiently for her to disappear from sight, then sprinting downstairs, two at a time, to get to Maria.

Sure, they have their love duet, “Something Good,” to sing before they run back inside to tell the children, but the clock is ticking.  Anything could happen to the Baroness.  Any delay at all and they’re looking at a world of embarrassment.

The Late Exit

Georg, Maria, and the kids are all back inside.  The Baroness has finally found her missing earring, the one she wore to the ball that “incorrigible” Kurt decided to hide on her.  Maybe she was boxed into a corner after a jar of spiders left by Louisa tipped over.  Who knows?  The point is she’s walking downstairs when she hears the family improvising over “My Favorite Things”:

                “Broken engagements and trips back to Vienna,

                We no longer feel like we’re stuck in gehenna…

                Maybe von Schrader will sail to Beijing…

                These are a few of my favorite things.”

Perhaps, it’s “So Long, Farewell”:

                “So long, farewell, auf wiedersehn, good night,

                We’ve put the Baroness completely out of sight…”

They could all be dancing the Laendler, that Austrian folk dance Maria tried to teach Kurt before the Captain interrupted.  Either way, it’s going to be quite awkward when the Baroness glides past the open parlor door.

The Salzburg Festival

Are we so sure the Baroness skipped the Salzburg Festival?  We don’t see her in the audience, but she is Max’s close friend.  Did she attend just to support him, or would memories of Castle von Trapp have overwhelmed her?  Surely, she would have been over the Captain by that time?

I envision her singing along to “Edelweiss,” tears in her eyes, a full-circle moment.  If I’m happy that the von Trapp Family Singers have escaped the Nazis and hiked over the border into Switzerland, then I can only imagine how happy the Baroness will be.

                “How do you solve a problem like Maria?

                You get her to hike across the Austrian border!”

Auf wiedersehn, darling.