Kill the Wabbit!
-
A note from Bugs Bunny At The Symphony creator and conductor George Daugherty: «Did you ever wonder just how many musical notes back up Elmer Fudd when he sings "Kill Da Wabbit, Kill Da Wabbit, Kill Da Wabbit" in "What's Opera, Doc?" Well, here it is . . . and the orchestration as arranged by Milt Franklyn is as full and packed as was the original by Richard Wagner (from his opera "Die Walkure.") The Looney Tunes creators weren't messing around!!! And this is just four bars of the massive Bugs/Elmer/Wagnerian score!!! These scores are very dense, this is what our conductor looks at all night during Bugs Bunny at the Symphony, and there are many hundreds of page turns! The authenticity and grandeur of the musical arrangements are what makes "What's Opera, Doc?", "The Rabbit of Seville," and the others so hilarious when pitted again the onscreen antics. And this musical authenticity played by a huge orchestra, as originally dreamed up by the great Carl Stalling, is what gives the Looney Tunes their unmistakable signature sound. (Warner Bros. was the only studio to use their full Warner Bros. Orchestra of 80-90 or more musicians to record for the animated shorts. The rest of the studios used a reduced "studio orchestra" for their shorts, including Disney and MGM/Tom & Jerry.) "What's Opera, Doc?" is an absolute miracle as it takes the iconic themes from Wagner's four Ring Cycle operas (Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung), plus four more . . . Tannhauser, Lohengrin, The Flying Dutchman, and Rienzi . . .8 nights total . . . and presents it all in 6 minutes and 23 seconds!!!
-
Fascinating.
Over the years I can still sing bits of Bugs' Wagner...
"You're so wuvly"
"Yes I know it, I can't help it"
"Return my wuv"There's another where he plays piano selections with his ears and feet, and a cheeky mouse living inside also plays bits then has to avoid the hammers
