In conjunction with the Bellows Falls Opera House, Popolo presents The Sound of Music on March 6. We’re offering a unique menu of Austro-Italian Specialties including regional Tyrolian dishes and wines, some of which might have been enjoyed in the dining room of the Von Trapps before they hoofed it over the Alps to Switzerland. In fact we’ll be featuring the Trapp Family beer on tap, as well. The movie starts across the street at 7:00pm so we recommend you make reservations for 5:00 or 5:30 which will give you adequate time to enjoy the clever work of our kitchen and wine merchants and STILL get into your Lederhosen in time for the movie. We’ll give you your tickets to the Sound of Music, free, with your purchase of our special dinner. The Bellows Falls Opera House boasts the largest screen in Vermont and the cinematic experience is awe-inspiring. No 3D fiddledeedee is needed to catch your attention, though the opening sequence across the snowy Alpine peaks, bathed in languid flugelhorns, might as well be CGI, so amazing is the approach to the now-legendary spinning Julie Andrews.

If you are one of those people who somehow have never seen The Sound of Music or for some reason think it’s too kitsch and corny, think again. This musical is rife with potent themes, thinly masked, and a musical score that has given us some of the most lasting melodies of the 20th century. You can stand any other score from the period up against this one and they will all fail. Sometimes even those of us who are jaded by all the glitz and treacle of these things are wowed by the simple fact that two Jewish guys (Rodgers and Hammerstein) drilled so deep into Catholic nun culture as to demystify what went on behind the convent walls. Did you know what a “whimple” was before seeing this? I doubt it. Even if you feel you need to enjoy this movie ironically, do it. But you’re wrong. There’s much to learn, the scenery is beautiful, and the film is a cultural milestone that, at the time, dwarfed all other films in the genre, winning FIVE Academy Awards and putting the soundtrack at #1 in the Billboard Charts in 1965. Sometimes we forget just how mind-bendingly important something has been when, later, its style is out of fashion. But in truth, The Sound of Music, the last score of the Rodgers and Hammerstein legacy, continues to rule as perhaps the most popular musical of all time. And the best.

Plus, this screening gives Popolo a chance to reach out to the Italian borders which, similarly, illustrate how powerful the mechanics of diversity are within Italian cuisine. Reservations are STRONGLY recommended and you can make one by calling 802.460.7676 Did we mention that your movie tickets are free with your dinner at Popolo. They are.

One further aside: contrary to the fictionalized Von Trapps, the real family left Austria after the Anschluss on a train to Italy, to a place where our special menu would feel right at home. They didn’t hike across the Alps to Switzerland though that story is far more dramatic and give real sense to the soaring Climb Every Mountain that Mother Superior sings. From Italy they made their way to London and, finally, to a place up the street, right here in Vermont.

The Sound of Music: Movie and Special Menu. Wednesday, March 6.