This weekend, Montreal’s iconic Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier came alive with the timeless charm of Bugs Bunny and his Looney Tunes pals in a symphonic spectacle that left audiences of all ages bursting with laughter and happy to have revisited their childhood memories.
Bugs infamous line “What’s up, Doc?” echoed through the air as classical music seamlessly intertwined with beloved classic animation, creating an unforgettable experience at Bugs Bunny at the Symphony.
- Producers / Presenters : Orchestre FILMharmonique, Productions GFN
- Language : English (no subtitles)
- Duration : 2h10 including a 20-minute intermission
- Presented by : Warner Bros. Discovery
- Conductor : George Daugherty
- Performed by : FILMharmonic Orchestra
- Produced and Created by : George Daugherty & David Ka Lik Wong | LOONEY TUNES and all related characters and elements © & ™ Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (s23)
The concert featured a dazzling array of a dozen of the world’s most beloved Looney Tunes shorts, including timeless classics such as “What’s Opera, Doc?,” “The Rabbit of Seville,” “Corny Concerto,” “Baton Bunny,” “Long-Haired Hare,” and many more.
To add to the excitement, five brand new animated shorts, including three Road Runner episodes in 3D, made their debut on the big screen, each bringing a fresh wave of laughter and joy to the delighted audience.
What set this concert apart was the dynamic collaboration between the animated world and the real-life stage. The FILMharmonic Orchestra, under the masterful baton of jolly and informative conductor George Daugherty, breathed new life into these animated masterpieces.
Daugherty was eager to explain that these animated shorts were initially presented just before feature films and lasted 6 minutes and 20 seconds long, just long enough to precisely fit on one roll of film. He also explained that the audience’s reaction and laughter comprises the quintessential 4th element of sound after (music, dialogue and sound effects).
As Bugs Bunny and his friends embarked on their hilarious antics on the big screen, the orchestra, armed with their “click tracks“, delivered the original scores with precision and passion, creating a symphonic fusion that was nothing short of magical.
Photo Courtesy of Conjunto Santander de Artes Escénicas.
The choice of venue, Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, provided the perfect setting for this musical extravaganza. The grandeur of the venue enhanced the larger-than-life experience of seeing Bugs Bunny and company in action on the big screen, creating an immersive atmosphere that captivated the audience from start to finish.
The 2-hour and 10-minute performance, including a 20-minute intermission, flew by in a whirlwind of laughter, applause, and sheer entertainment. The language of the concert was English, ensuring that everyone could revel in the wit and charm of Bugs Bunny without missing a beat.
Conductor George Daugherty, along with co-creator David Ka Lik Wong, orchestrated an event that celebrated the timeless appeal of Bugs Bunny and his Looney Tunes companions. The combination of animated hilarity and live orchestral brilliance brought a sense of unity and joy to the audience, showcasing the enduring power of these iconic characters. The concert wasn’t just a nostalgic trip down memory lane for older fans; it was a vibrant introduction to the magic of Looney Tunes for a new generation.
In the end, Bugs Bunny at the Symphony was a celebration of the art of animation, the magic of orchestral music, and the timeless appeal of characters that have been entertaining audiences for generations.
The fiery encore piece ” Dynamite Dance” left behind a trail of smiles and thunderous applause, cementing Bugs Bunny at the Symphony as a must-see event that brings together the best of classical music and classic animation.
What a spectacular way to spend a weekend!
To find out more about the Bugs Bunny at the Symphony Tour please visit :
https://bugsbunnyatthesymphony.net/tour_schedule.html
Next performances are scheduled :
| February 10, 2024 San Francisco, CA The San Francisco Symphony Davies Symphony Hall MORE INFO |
| February 25, 2024 Stamford, CT Orchestra Lumos The Palace Theatre MORE INFO |
Photo credit: Martin Bélanger
Photo(s) courtesy Of Warner Bros. Discovery
Interview with Conductor George Daugherty:
1. What are the unique challenges of conducting a performance that combines live music with animated content?
The challenges come from conducting any concert with a live orchestra and projected films. And the main challenge is “keeping it all together” . . . keeping the live music and the projected film in synchronization. Unlike a “normal” orchestral concert, where the conductor and the musicians can go with the flow of the music as they wish (and varying it from performance to performance), a “film concert” requires exact precision in synchronizing all the elements — the live music, the picture and the recorded dialogue, bombastic sound effects, everything. The need for precision is even more intense with animation — especially Looney Tunes — where everything is fast and furious, and there is absolutely no room for error. It is, however, very helpful to be working with an orchestra like the FILMharmonic –– where the musicians are very experienced playing film scores “to picture,” and that gives everything a huge head start.
2. How do you work with the animated content to ensure a seamless and synchronized performance? Are there specific techniques or technologies used to coordinate the music and visuals?
In the concert itself, we basically use the same time-honored techniques that were actually used at the Warner Bros. Studios when these cartoons were originally created and recorded, back in the 1930’s, 40’s, and 50’s. They had the same issues — ensuring that the music was recorded totally “in sync.” Carl Stalling, the genius composer behind the Looney Tunes scores and music, invented an amazing and groundbreaking technology back in those days . . . the click track!! The click track is like a metronome, that only the conductor and musicians hear. It gives us starts and stops, and tempi. (Tempos.) In this way, the music is always in sync with the film. It was a simple but brilliant technology that Stalling invented, and to this day, the click track is still the very foundation of how a conductor and musicians keep it all together. So what the audience sees in our concert is pretty much an exact re-creation of how these pioneers did it on the Warner Bros. recording stage, 70 years ago.
3. How do you see the combination of classical music and iconic animated characters impacting audience engagement? What do you hope the audience takes away from the experience?
Well, first of all, it’s not exactly classical music. Carl Stalling and his colleague Milt Franklyn wrote these brilliant cartoon scores with their own amazing melodies and rhythms, but then the threw in fantastic musical quotes from Wagner, Rossini, Tchaikovsky, Johann Strauss, Smetana, Mendelssohn, von Suppé, Liszt, and so many others, creating that instantly recognizable pastiche that IS “The Warner Bros. Sound.” You really know it when you hear it. And we are playing the original Carl Stalling and Mily Franklyn scores in our concert — exactly how they composed them. It is a thrill for the musicians who play them, and for the audiences who hear them. And when modern-day audiences see 16 of the greatest Looney Tunes ever made, played by an amazing big orchestra, most people come to the acknowledgement that they first learned about the classical composers — and great music — from these very cartoons.
Once you see this concert live, you’re never able to look at — or hear — these cartoons in the same way ever again!
As Bugs’ friend Porky Pig would say : “That’s All Folks!”
