What's Opera Doc

There a huge number of cartoons that I can remember word for word but very few of them quite like the Warner Brother's What's Opera Doc? I can sing along with that little gem and pretend for a moment that I actually know what Wagner's Ring Cycle would sound like. Of course I'm missing a couple hours of it. But that Bugs Bunny cartoon was one of my first introductions to opera although not my first introduction to classical music. 

So I was thrilled on Saturday when I got to go see Bugs Bunny on Broadway with my parents and sister. You honestly can't even begin to describe how much fun it is to watch a 100 piece orchestra play the opening introduction to a Bugs Bunny cartoon. From the initial slide sound to the clopping blocks it brings a huge smile to your face. I was laughing before they even began to show the cartoons. 

The show is a brain child of George Daugherty and has been running in symphony halls for almost 19 years. The idea is that Warner Brothers sampled a lot of classical music when making their cartoons. Of course the most famous being What's Opera Doc which uses Wagner's Ring Cycle and the Rabbit of Seville which uses Rossini. But there are numerous Road Runner cartoons that also uses bits of classical pieces cut in such a way to make them recognizable but abbreviated. Remember a cartoon is only seven minutes long and classical pieces tend to be a bit longer than that. So on Saturday I was treated to a full orchestra playing Rossini, Mozart, Wagner, Strauss, and Smetana while watching some of the funniest cartoons ever made. What could be better?

I was really surprised by how well they pulled this off. The musicians timed their starts and halts perfectly. The conductor used a click track, an invention of Carl Stalling's own (Warner Brother's composer and conductor) to keep track of every little stop and start. And they had to time it beautifully. The orchestra, which gets about a week to rehearse with the new music, did amazingly. Almost every seat in the Civic Center was filled. There were tons of kids there who seemed to love the show. I'm sure for many of them this is their first trip to the symphony. 

My sister and I, along with Jeff and my sister's fiance, laughed harder than most. We've all grown up with these cartoons. They make up our childhood. And as Daugherty said in his opening introduction, it is difficult for many of us to hear the Ride of the Valkyries without thinking "Kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit". This music was introduced to us by cartoons. The cartoons when created were done with a full orchestra behind them. And this show brings all that together for one incredible evening. So much fun.