Yesterday, my daughter and I watched cartoons. We also went to the symphony. Actually, we did both at the same time. We spent the afternoon at the Detroit Opera House for Bugs Bunny at the Symphony.
The day was supposed to be my friend Margaret, the kids, my wife and me. Margaret bought the tickets when they went on sale. Her husband wound up in the hospital, so she forwarded the tickets to me.
This morning Andrew was not having a good day and he said he didn’t want to go. After a lot of discussion, and lots of crying from him, he stayed home with my wife and my daughter and I had a date day.
She was pretty excited to go, and didn’t know what to expect when she saw the orchestra on stage. Once the cartoons started, she was laughing and loving it. When the conductor stopped and was talking about the music and how the show came to be, we lost her. She wanted more cartoons.
We actually almost made it through the whole show. She asked to leave just before the last cartoon. We’d been there 2 and a half hours at that point, so that’s pretty good.
When I asked my wife if she was ok to stay home, she said she was. She then said, “I know you’ll love it. You really like that band stuff.” Of course, she’s right!
The show itself was truly wonderful. From the moment the orchestra started the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes music, I was transported back to Saturday mornings in front of the TV when I was my daughter’s age!
I cannot begin to tell you just how amazing it is to hear the symphony playing the cartoon score live as the cartoon plays on the big screen. It is like listening to it in surround sound.
There were a couple times when the music is actually playing from the cartoon and then the orchestra takes over. The transition is seamless and you can barely tell that it has happened.
At the beginning of the show, the orchestra comes on and plays the music from The Barber of Seville. This is the music that is played while Bugs Bunny is putting hair tonic on Elmer Fudd’s head and rubbing it in. As soon as they got to that part in the song, the audience started chuckling because they immediately pictured what was going on in the cartoon (without the cartoon being played!).
The orchestra is completely in synch with the cartoon. Character reactions with huge music stings and cymbal crashes when something falls are perfectly timed. It was a very cool experience.
The conductor explained that the opera house used to be a movie theater. It closed and stood vacant for years until the Detroit Opera purchased and renovated it. He reminded us that when it was a movie theater, these were the cartoons that played before feature films. Now they are playing here again. Full circle.
I was so happy they included the cartoon Long-Haired Hare. It is the one where Giovanni Jones, the opera singer, is practicing at his home. Bugs is somewhere outside playing first a banjo, then a harp, and then a tuba. He is close enough that his playing is distracting Jones from his practicing. Jones destroys the banjo (above), the harp and the tuba, which leads Bugs to get even.
Eventually, Bugs enters the orchestra pit dressed as famous conductor Leopold Stokowski. On the podium, Bugs administers a series of vocal tests, which Jones passes. After brief applause from the audience, Bugs scowls at Jones, then directs him to sing a prolonged high G note. Jones complies, singing until he writhes in pain and his face turns several different colors, eventually causing the stage shell to collapse in on him.
I’ve seen that cartoon so many times, but to hear that music in the theater with an audience made it something extra special. Listening to my daughter laugh out loud was an added bonus. What a joy it was to experience this show!
If the production swings through your neck of the woods, I highly recommend it.
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 