Music Reviews : ‘Bugs Bunny’ Takes a Bow at Hollywood Bowl

Move over Esa-Pekka Salonen: Hollywood’s most popular rabbit joined the roster of Los Angeles Philharmonic guest conductors Friday night, when George Daugherty brought his popular “Bugs Bunny on Broadway” show to Hollywood Bowl.

The evening of Warner Bros. cartoons with live musical accompaniment, cartoon scores and classical music used in cartoons proved both entertaining and enlightening.

A 22-by-30-foot video screen mounted near the top of the shell and a battery of smaller monitors provided bright, clearly visible images as Daugherty lead the orchestra in live accompaniments to nine cartoons.

In the opening short, “Baton Bunny” (1959), Bugs spoofed the gestures of a symphony conductor as he struggled to lead an unseen orchestra in a reworked version of Franz von Suppe’s overture, “Morning, Noon and Night in Vienna,” while battling an annoying fly. Bugs’ exaggerated, on-screen movements and Daugherty’s staccato motions provided an amusing study in visual contrasts.

Between cartoons, Daugherty lead the orchestra in nicely polished performances of “Morning, Noon and Night in Vienna,” Wagner’s “The Ride of the Valkyries” and Rossini’s overture to “The Barber of Seville.” Daugherty wisely balanced the cartoon excesses with restraint: “The Ride of the Valkyries” built to a properly stormy climax, but never became overwrought; the familiar themes from “The Barber of Seville” sounded fresh and crisp.

Much of the second half of the program was devoted to a celebration of cartoon director Chuck Jones’ 80th birthday.

Daugherty showed a clip from his forthcoming documentary about the three-time Oscar winner that included greetings from animation figures Friz Freleng, June Foray and Matt Groening, plus live-action filmmakers Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Ron Howard and Whoopi Goldberg. In a brief, witty speech, Jones recalled that the first time he met Harry and Jack Warner, he was dumbfounded to hear Harry declare, “All I know about our cartoon studio is that we make Mickey Mouse.”

Although Jones received the much-deserved tribute, most of the evening highlighted the work of two largely forgotten Warners artists, Carl W. Stalling and Milt Franklyn. Stalling’s gift for crafting neat, catchy melodies that could be combined with the popular songs in Warners’ library enabled him to compose and record the music for a seven-minute cartoon in as little as a week. The score for “Jumpin’ Jupiter” (1955)--performed without visual accompaniment--blended Raymond Scott’s “Power House” with “I Only Have Eyes for You” and his own jazzy, Leonard Bernstein-esque tunes.

Franklyn, Stalling’s orchestrator (and successor as composer when Stalling retired in 1958) reworked the music of Suppe and Rossini for “Baton Bunny” and “Rabbit of Seville,” and deftly stitched together bits of “The Flying Dutchman,” “The Valkyrie,” “Siegfried” and “Tannhauser” for “What’s Opera, Doc?” (1957), Jones’ hilarious send-up of Wagner. The presence of the orchestra shifted emphasis from the visuals to the music, reminding the audience of Stalling’s and Franklyn’s contributions to these classic shorts.

The concert concluded with Jones’ “Long-Haired Hare” (1949), in which Bugs impersonates Leopold Stokowksi and destroys the Bowl, and “What’s Opera, Doc?”

The young, enthusiastic audience cheered not only Jones’ name on the credits but also their favorite scenes--Bugs’ snappy rendition of “What Do They Do on a Rainy Night in Rio” in the first short, and his uproarious duet with an incongruously behelmeted Elmer, set to the Pilgrim’s Chorus from “Tannhauser” (“Oh Bwunnehilde, you’re so wuv-wee” / “Yes I know it, I can’t help it”) in the second.

Attendance: 16,079; airplanes: 4.