Bugs and Lenny introduced me to the classics. Joe’s operas are my favorites.
How many of us of a certain age get a mental picture of a Looney Tunes scene when we hear the Barber of Seville? My mother loved classical music but, like many kids, I was totally dismissive of whatever my parents thought was good. As a pubescent girl, watched Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts on PBS (or whatever it was called at the time) because I thought he was so gorgeous. And Looney Tunes have always been my favorites. If it weren’t for them, I may not have taken the time to listed to opera.
So a belated thanks to Bugs, (and of course Chuck Jones) and Maestro Bernstein for the pleasure I now get from good music.
My first taste of opera came to me on a Saturday morning when I was about 12 years old.
I was watching the Bugs Bunny Show. Chuck Jones had condensed the Ring Cycle epic down to about 6 minutes, with Elmer Fudd as Sigfried and Bugs playing, well… himself (though he did also appear in drag for a bit posing as Brunhilde). That was the only WB cartoon I ever saw a tragic ending to, and it was all I could do to keep a stoic face on as Sigfried (Elmer) carried Bugs’ wilted body off into the sunset. Just before the iris, Bugs sits up in Elmer’s arms and says "Well, what did you expect from an opera? A happy ending?
I’m still waiting for that one to come out on a collection. If W.O.D. happens to be on it, I’ll pay full price for a collection that contains nothing else but stinkers. It’s that good.
Last fall I attended my daughter’s orchestra concert. A good concert, with a nice selection of music well played… until they started playing the Rabbit, uh, Barber of Seville.
Da da da DA-ah! Da da da DA-ah!
In my mind’s eye I see Bugs massaging Elmer’s scalp with his toes. I started losing it.
Soon, Bugs Bunny and Elmer are chasing each other around the stage with progressivly larger weapons. I am suppressing the worst case of the giggles.
NOW Bugs is in drag (again), dancing for Elmer (Nothin’ could be sweeta, I’m your little seniorita…). It’s no use. I’m in convulsions trying not to laugh out loud.
Finally, Bugs (in a wedding gown), carries Elmer up a flight of stairs a la Rhett and Scarlet, through a fake door, and drops him a zillion floors into a wedding cake inscribled “La Nozzell de Figaro”. FINALLY the piece ends, and I can crack up amidst the applause.
About ten or so years ago, while we were living in DC, the National Symphony Orchestra did a Loony Toons concert at Wolftrap. I had no car, so no way to get to there, but it sounded like a great idea. The NSO played the score for What’s Opera Doc?, Rabbit of Seville, and other 'Toons while the (muted) cartoons were shown on movie screens.
I’ve often wondered since then why doesn’t some other smart orchestra do that?
My guess would be copyright problems. My high school band did a thing once where we played Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna (at least, I think that’s the right title) while showing an old Buster Keaton film.
I got much of my classical education from WB cartoons. I remember when I first heard the William Tell Overture in it’s entirety. I had expected to recognize the finale (from the Lone Ranger), but I discovered that Looney Tunes often used two other sections to indicate a storm, and to indicate it was early morning.
And the man responsible for all this has been sadly ignored (he hasn’t yet been mentioned in this thread): Carl Stalling. He chose a lot of the music, and arranged it to fit what the others were planning.
Looney Tunes also gave me my appreciation of the great (and terminally underappreciated) American popular composer Harry Warren.
The NSO did the cartoon gig again a few years ago. I was planning a vacation down to D.C. anyway, I just picked the dates so I could go to the show.
It was great, but I can’t say that it was really much better than just watching the cartoons with the original music. The NSO tries to play everything very grandly; with long, held notes at the end, that sort of thing. And that isn’t really needed in this case. The original music is so brilliantly crisp, and feels just a little bit fast and frantic. There just isn’t any room to improve on it.
BrotherCadfael, at the end of The Rabbit of Seville, Bugs and Elmer are chasing each other with various escalating weapons, until Bugs comes back with flowers, and candy, and a ring; and then it’s Elmer who runs off and changes into the wedding gown. And that just strikes me as even more twisted.
RealityChuck, for a neglected American composer (who was borrowed on very heavily by Carl Stalling) check out Raymond Scott. I can’t hear Powerhouse (and for a while I was hearing it everywhere) without picturing two polite gophers running into a vegetable processing plant. And In an 18th Century Drawing Room might as well be called “Granny’s Theme”.
“The Rabbit of Seville”
“One Froggy Evening”
“Hillbilly Hare”
“Curtain Razor”
“What’s Up, Doc?”
“Nelly’s Folly”
“The Scarlet Pumpernickel”
“Show Biz Bugs”
“The Three Little Bops”
“Baton Bunny”
“High Note”
“Long-Haired Hare”
and
“Tweety’s Circus”
Get thee to ebay and buy the “Curtain Calls” VCD (released by WB in Asia, they play fine on my Sony) for about $5 + s/h from Asia.
I have the laserdisc of which the VCD is a copy - I paid about $100 for it. I no longer use the laserdisc (thank you Philips!) but will hold onto them (I have every one of the puppies)
Oh, and while you’re there, pick up “Assorted Nuts” and get:
“A Bear For Punishment” (the bear family)
“Dog Gone South” (Charlie Dog)
“Boyhood Daze” (Ralph Phillips_
“Pests For Guests” (Mac and Tosh, the gophers)
“Mouse Wreckers” (Hubie and Bert, the mice)
“A Sheep in the Deep” (Sheepdog and wolf)
“Rabbit’s Kin” (Bugs, his nephew, and the sole appearance of Pete Puma)
“Feed the Kitty” (Anthony and Pussyfoot__
“The Hypo-Chondri-Cat” (Claude cat, Hubie, Bert)
“From A to Z-z-z-z” (Ralph Phillips)
“Chow Hound” (Charlie Dog)
“Strife With Father”
“Bear Feat” (bear family)
“Feline Frame-Up” (Claude, Anthony, Pussyfoot)
“Gone Batty”
“A Hound For Trouble” (Charlie Dog)
IIRC, all of the YPCs appeared on one or more of the major networks. PBS hadn’t really gotten anywhere when the concerts started. (And nowadays there’s about as much classical music on PBS as there was on the networks.)
My guess (and my personal opinion) is it really isn’t that smart. There’s more sound in the cartoons than just the music. I like the cartoons and the original music, but I wouldn’t like the cartoons without the full soundtrack.
It’s “Kill, the Wabbit, Kill the Wabbit, KILL the Wabbit…”
And Robot Arm, you are absolutely correct… Of course, we left out Bugs rubbing in the scalp lotion with his ears, making Elmer a mud pack out of cement, and growing flowers on his head…
I meant “smart” in the sense that this is just the kind of thing that can increase an orchestra’s audience. Most orchestras are wracking their brains to get more get non-traditional audience members into their building and, hopefully, increase their support base. This seems to me to be a perfect answer for that. Although, the cost of securing permission and copyright problems (as asterion alluded) may make it more expensive than it’s worth.
I believe there is a concert program entitled Bugs Bunny on Broadway that is licensed by Warner Bros. featuring a live symphony orchestra performing the scores of classical-themed Looney Tunes.
Of course, we must not forget the greatness of Carl Stalling and the Warner Bros. Orchestra. Without them, these shorts would be pretty much silent.
Which reminds me of a funny story about Stalling (now I’m just rambling) that Chuck Jones once told: Animation, as we all know, is just drawing a lot of pictures so it looks like they’re moving. Now animators often flip the pictures they’ve drawn to see if the movement is fluid, like a flip book. Now the business manager of the studio (Leon Schlesinger Productions, or as the building it was located in was referred to, “Termite Terrace”) was a guy named Ray Katz, who wasn’t exactly the brightest of fellows, if you know what I mean. Now, he didn’t understand animation, and he couldn’t read music, either; so he figured that all this flipping of paper must be important. So, he decided to flip some papers of his own. He went over to Stalling, picked up the musical score for a cartoon they were just making, and flipped it a couple of times. Content, he gave it back. From that point on, all the scores were given to Katz for approval-and by approval, I mean he flipped through them. Didn’t make sense to anybody but him, but I think they all got a laugh out of it.
“There, you’re nice and clean…although your face looks as though it has gone through a machine…”
Yes, there is. I saw this show back in 2001 at Wolf Trap near D.C. I consider BBoB a must-see event for anybody who likes the classic Looney Tunes (which I expect includes a lot of Dopers).