A Little Something Extra

My 8 year-old still can't believe that cartoons were only shown on Saturday mornings "back in the day," as she calls "my era."  Yes, darling.  No 24-hour access to cartoons like digital cable, Cartoon Network and the Disney Channel provide us today (sometimes I wish we could go back to less programming). My brother and I had the same Saturday morning ritual: make some hot chocolate on the stove and turn on Bugs Bunny and his friends--Elmer Fudd, Wile E. Coyote, Daffy Duck and Yosemite Sam--and laugh to our heart's content. The best though was the laughter coming from the other room, where mom and dad were. As kids, we were laughing at the punch lines and the outrageous antics. They were laughing at the brilliant musical parodies. I now know why.

So I'll be there this weekend with my 8 year-old, reminding her how lucky she is to experience these amazing cartoons on the big screen, above the accompaniment of a full orchestra--her Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. I'll remind her how lucky she is that she doesn't have to wait to see these great cartoons on a Saturday morning!

To learn more about this amazing production, I asked creator and conductor George Daugherty to answer a few questions about the show.  Maestro Daugherty created the original Bugs Bunny on Broadway show and the new version playing this weekend, Bugs Bunny at the Symphony. ISO Blog fans:  meet George Daugherty.

Jessica:  Tell me how the idea of the original Bugs Bunny on Broadway came to you?

GEORGE DAUGHERTY:  To put it in a nutshell, I had two very strong reasons behind my desire to create Bugs Bunny on Broadway. The first stemmed from my great memories of these cartoons from my own childhood. They are so brilliant, and practically every kid in America got their first dose of classical music from these incredible cartoons. Wagner, Rossini, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Smetana, Strauss, Von Suppe, Donizetti, Mendelssohn — they are ALL in these cartoons – and in this concert --  and more.  Bugs and his animators all had their way with these great composers.

And without ‘dulling down’ the music at all — or in any way being disrespectful or derogatory to the original compositions — they made this great music totally irresistible — and unforgettable — to kids (and adults) who weren’t normally drawn to classical music.  So I really wanted to pay homage to a very memorable part of my own — and millions of other people’s — childhoods. And as we have toured this concert around the world — Australia, Russia, China, Japan, Korea, England, Canada, South America, Europe — I have discovered that it wasn’t just American kids who fell in love with these cartoons. They are universal, universally beloved, and they cross boundaries, and borders, and language barriers.

And my second reason was a really strong desire to create a concert which pulls people into the concert hall who might not otherwise come . . . and that has been the case throughout the 20-year history of Bugs Bunny On Broadway . . . this concert, just like the cartoons, has also introduced a lot of ADULTS to the incredible magic of the symphony orchestra, and then they come back for what we like to call ‘normal’ concerts.

So, the truly magical thing about these cartoons – and the music – is that they are as equally appealing to first-time concertgoers as they are to seasoned classical music aficionados. And actually, it’s the savvy classical music fans who REALLY get the “inside musical jokes.” So the concert has an extremely wide demographic, both in terms of age, and in terms of musical knowledge and experience.

Jessica:  That's what I remember as a kid watching these cartoons.  I would laugh (with my older brother Judd) at certain scenes in the cartoons, and my mother (as someone who was well versed in classical music) would be laughing hysterically at the scenes tied to music.  When did you decide to do it as a concert?

GEORGE:  Well, it was almost an accident.  I mean, I have been referred to in newspaper interviews as “cartoon nut George Daugherty” or “animation aficionado George Daugherty” – but the truth is that although I loved these cartoons as a child, I did sort of forget about them in my teens, and went about the business of studying to be a classical musician.  And then in the 1980’s I finished up my conservatory training and went about establishing a “serious conducting career.”  By the time I was in my mid-20’s, I was conducting at places like the Munich State Opera and American Ballet Theatre, and I wasn’t thinking AT ALL about cartoons!

You also have to remember that in the early 1980’s,  DVD’s hadn’t been invented, absolutely nobody had a home computer, there were no satellite dish networks, audio CD's were barely out there, people were still playing vinyl, cable television was in its infancy, most people still had an antenna on their roof and hardly anybody even had a VCR.  (Hard to believe.)  So unless you got up on Saturday morning to watch these cartoons on television, they weren’t very visible during this decade.  They weren’t very available, because technology was nothing like it is now.

One night, however, I was visiting with some friends who were animators, and THEY had a VCR!  And they had some of the first-released Bugs Bunny commercial VHS tapes.  Well suddenly, I was seeing “What’s Opera, Doc?” and “The Rabbit of Seville,” and all these masterpieces for the first time since childhood, but now as an adult conductor and musician, I realized that they had been created by some formidable geniuses.  And for some inexplicable reason – some people actually called it “insane” -- I wanted to perform them.  Live.  In front of an audience.

So that’s what drove us to create the concert. But obviously, we couldn’t have done it without the support, assistance, and enthusiasm of Warner Bros.  And Warner Bros. was extremely enthusiastic about this production from the moment we proposed it to them. They made it possible for the dream to become a reality.  I think they realized that it would celebrate their brilliant cartoons . . . cartoons that were such a part of their history . . . in a very unique way. They have been our partners from day one.  Among countless millions of animation aficionados the world over, the Warner Bros. Studios cartoons are in a class by themselves, and so for us to get a chance to work with this material, to reconstruct and restore them for live performance – to actually “perform them” for cheering audiences – has been the project and opportunity of a lifetime.

And now, at our 20th anniversary, we have launched Bugs Bunny at the Symphony,  which still contains the greatest “jewels” of our original concert, but has a lot of new elements as well.  So, the best of both worlds!

Jessica: You've been performing this show for 20 years. Some of the best orchestras in the world have been performing Bugs Bunny on Broadway and now Bugs Bunny at the Symphony. What do these legendary orchestras think about playing “cartoon music.”

GEORGE:  Well, there is nothing “cartoony” about the music, other than the animated visuals.  The music is actually extremely difficult – very virtuosic.  Carl Stalling, the original Warner Bros. Animation composer, was a master musician, and a superb orchestrator.  He also had a wry musical sense of humor that was incredibly sophisticated.  He knew exactly when to unleash the full furry of the entire orchestra, and he also knew when to apply a minimalist touch for even more stunning effect.  An example is when Wile E. Coyote takes the plunge from some mountaintop or other – which happens invariably in every Road Runner cartoon.  As Wile is falling, the orchestra usually follows him right down the precipice with a cascading crescendo of furious chromatics.  And just when the Coyote hits bottom, and you expect a REALLY big crash of music, Stalling just has the alto flute play a pianissimo toot.  The restraint . . . the unexpected restraint . . . magnifies the effect immeasurably.  So Stalling was a genius.  And Milt Franklyn, who first started working under Stalling as his orchestrator and eventually took over, was a chip off the old blockbuster.  He was a genius too.  And orchestras recognize this immediately.  The musicians instantly recognize the brilliance of the compositions, and the incredibly high musical standard.  And then, of course, there is the whole difficulty of playing an entire concert in exact synchronization to cartoons being projected on a big screen!  So it is a very unique experience for these orchestras.  And I have yet to see a bored musician in 20 years of conducting Bugs Bunny On Broadway and now, Bugs Bunny At The Symphony.

Jessica: What do you enjoy most about your long involvement with the show?

GEORGE: These ensembles are extraordinary . . . they are legendary. I mean, some of the musicians still playing in these orchestras worked directly under Toscanini, Stokowski, Stravinski, Walton, Sir Thomas Beecham . . . their “career life experiences are mesmerizing, priceless, and irreplaceable.  And I have tried to soak every bit of it up.  I think, in today’s classical music world, there is sometimes a tendency, or philosophy, that “newer, younger, more virtuosic, equals better.”  But I have absorbed so much from these seasoned veteran musicians.

It was a magical experience working with the animation legends from the original Warner Bros. Studios too.  When we first started with Bugs Bunny On Broadway, so many of them were still alive.  Mel Blanc, the “man of a thousand voices.”  The legendary director Friz Freleng.  Master illustrator and background painter Maurice Noble.  And of course, the exceptionally brilliant, one-of-a-kind Chuck Jones – who became a mentor to me, and was also a treasured friend with whom I shared many cherished adventures.  Chuck is gone now.  They are all gone now.  But we learned so much from them, and they have left this incredible legacy of laughter and music that will be around for centuries.  Truly.

And certainly not least, I have to say the other thing I love so much are the audiences. That is what keeps it fresh and exciting – the reactions of the audience. This is a very interactive concert — the audiences get very involved, and they are very enthusiastic. Some might even be described as slightly rowdy!! Orchestras who have not played the concert before are sometimes surprised the first time around; they are not used to audiences who are so unabashedly, vocally enthusiastic. But they get into it very quickly — it can almost be like a rock concert, at times.

Jessica: Do you have a favorite piece in the show? Who’s you favorite Looney Toons character?

GEORGE:  Answering either one of these questions is like asking a parent who their favorite child is. All of the cartoons in the show — and all of the characters — have their own unique and very specific special qualities. They are all so wonderful. Each of the cartoons represents a very special era in the Warner Bros. history, and is indicative of the unique talents and style of the director who brought it to life. I do have to say, though, that ‘What’s Opera, Doc?’ and ‘The Rabbit of Seville’ are both very dear to my heart. I mean, who else but Chuck Jones could have taken all 23 hours of Wagner’s Ring Cycle (as well the major leitmotifs from Tannhauser, The Flying Dutchman, Die Meistersinger, and Lohengrin) and delivered the whole thing in seven minutes and 30 seconds flat? That’s ‘What’s Opera, Doc?’!!   Franklyn’s score is incredible for this cartoon – so many of the Wagnerian leitmotifs and themes are totally intact, but the experience is quite different from the original operas.

And as for ‘The Rabbit of Seville’, I don’t care how sophisticated an ‘opera lover’ a person may be, I defy them to tell me that when they hear ‘The Barber of Seville’ Overture at a concert or at the opera, that they don’t have at least a momentary flash of Bugs slicing a fruit salad on Elmer Fudd’s bald head. That’s how much these cartoons — and that cartoon — have become a part of global pop culture. Actually, not just pop culture, but culture in general. And audiences all over the world chuckle before that moment happens in the cartoon. They know it’s coming, they know it very, very well. It’s no accident!! These cartoons and these characters are icons to many, many hundreds of millions of people.

And, well, as for favorite characters — well again, I have to work with them all, so I can’t pick favorites.  But I DO just have to say that Bugs Bunny has been very, very good to me.

Jessica: What do audiences enjoy most about the show?

GEORGE: There are so many things to enjoy. First of all, there is the excitement and immediacy of the music. People who have seen — and heard — Bugs Bunny On Broadway say that they will never be able to hear animation music in the same way, or watch cartoons in the same way. The composers who wrote and adapted these cartoon scores — the incredibly brilliant Carl Stalling and Milt Franklyn — were spectacular composers in their own rights, and were absolutely extraordinary orchestrators; they were phenomenally inventive musicians.

They were incredibly knowledgeable, so when they did a send-up of Wagner or Rossini, it was done with love and respect and admiration and musical accuracy —but at the same time, with an absolutely hilarious sense of humor. But NEVER with disrespect to the original composer’s masterpiece. If anything, Stalling and Franklyn celebrated the original works. The music for the Warner Bros. cartoons has always had an instantly identifiable and incredibly distinctive sound. You know it the minute you hear it. But when you hear it LIVE, it is a really an ‘in your face’ experience, and the music is absolutely phenomenal. It is larger — and louder — than life. So that is certainly one thing.

I also think that this concert affords audiences a very unique way to see these cartoons. Most people have only seen the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies on television, or on video. On a small screen, in the privacy of home, or with just a few people. But that is not how they were made. They were made in the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s to be seen in movie theaters, on BIG screens, with thousands of people laughing together. The cartoons’ timings and style were designed to accommodate the laughter of an audience.  And that is how audiences see them in Bugs Bunny on Broadway — they see these cartoons in the way they were made to be seen, meant to be seen. With the almost-deafening sound of laughter, in a totally theatrical environment. And that’s a very invigorating thing!

I also think that different segments of the audience enjoy the concert it different ways. Kids love this concert on a very basic and visceral level — they love these cartoons. They laugh A LOT. They are fast and furious, colorful, funny, engaging, and of course, there is all this great music. But unlike so many other cartoons and things from our childhoods, these particular cartoons really grow up with you as you get older . . . and when you are an adult, you see a whole new sophistication in these Bugs Bunny classics. That is what makes them so special; you can watch them your whole life, and always see something new. With each passing year, there is something you didn’t notice before.

I think that’s why our audiences see this concert over, and over, and over. These cartoons don’t just have double entendres . . . they have triple and quadruple entendres, and then some! It really plays to an extremely wide age group, in a very unique way.

I don’t know why, but this concert seems to attract the greatest audiences in the world.  Maybe it’s Bugs’s indefatigable independence, his unique sense of humor, and his refusal to ‘suffer fools gladly’. His generosity. His musicality! I don’t know. But this rabbit pulls in a very special and unique audience, unlike anything I have ever seen before.  And at the end of the day – at the end of the performance – those audiences are what have kept us going for 20 years!

Jessica:  And last but not least, you are a native Hoosier!  What's it like to come back to Indy?

GEORGE:  Yes!  I'm a proud Pendleton, Indiana native! My first symphonic experience occurred when I went to an ISO performance at age four. I attended Butler University Jordan College of Music, Indiana University, and The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.  The Indianapolis Symphony is incredibly dear to my heart, as well as to my musical soul. If it were not for the ISO, I would not be a conductor today.  To come back and perform with this superb ensemble is always the highlight of any season.  On top of that, the Circle Theatre was one of my other favorite destinations as a child, and my parents were even married just across the Circle, at Christ Church Cathedral.  So coming back here is ‘coming home’ in so very many ways.