The Sound of Music opened on Broadway 61 years ago tonight.

Here's the Preludium from the 60th-anniversary OBCR re-release that restored the tolling bells heard in the Lunt-Fontanne and on LP but not on prior CD releases.

One of the happiest of my blogging days was attending the 50th-anniversary celebration of The Sound of Music at Barnes & Noble in 2009. @RealKateBaldwin sang the title song! Theodore Bikel sang "Edelweiss"! I met some of the OG nuns! https://www.theatreaficionado.com/2009/11/the-reverend-mother-played-poker.html

The OG nuns told me that the nun's chorus was half-Broadway, half classical so there were some cliques. They also told me that Patricia Neway, Tony-winning original Mother Abbess, ran a poker game in her dressing room during her 65-minute break in act one.

The quality of the original nun's chorus singing is absolutely out of this world. Here they are performing an a cappella medley of the Preludium and wedding processional (before Patricia Neway introduces "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" to America)

A shout out to whoever is carrying the alto line and hits that remarkable low E at the end of "Rex admirabilis"

Also: a shout out to Richard Rodgers for composing such a spectacular pastiche of Roman Catholic liturgical music.