George Daugherty Returns for Bugs Bunny at the Symphony

David Lewellen

Tagged Under: 2024.25 Season, Conductor

George Daugherty will return to Milwaukee Nov. 8-10 to conduct “Bugs Bunny at the Symphony,” his popular concert of classic Looney Tunes cartoons accompanied by the Milwaukee Symphony. He spoke by phone recently with MSO Backstage writer David Lewellen. Here is an edited version of their conversation.

Q. What went into creating this show, back before live movie soundtracks were popular?

A. We were the very first film and orchestra concert, back in 1990. We led the way for the explosion since then. I loved cartoons as a kid – they were my first exposure to classical music. Later, as an adult conductor, I programmed cartoon music, but music without imagery only tells half the story.

Q. Was it harder to put together with 1990s technology?

A. There were a ton of technical difficulties. There were no computer programs to prepare the music. We had to do everything by hand, and we had to invent technology as we went along.

Q. So you didn’t have the streaming iPad with the green bar on your music stand?

A. We did it the way the original studio musicians did, with a click track (headphones for every musician with a metronome beat). And we still do. For this concert, it’s absolutely necessary. The timing on these cartoons is so tight, and the orchestra and conductor have to be together, so the original way is the best way. But the projection has improved a lot. In 1990, the projector was the size of a washing machine and low-resolution. Now it’s very hi-res and the size of a suitcase.

Q. Have you changed the show over the years, adding or subtracting cartoons?

A. It always changes. We always keep What’s Opera, Doc? and The Rabbit of Seville, because audiences want to see those over and over, but the other things change. We’ve got three new Road Runner cartoons in 3D animation.

Q. When you’re going through hundreds of cartoons in the archives, how do you choose?

A. There were actually over a thousand Warner Brothers cartoons. We go for ones that have a classical connection, either the orchestra music or the plot and story itself.

Q. Is the soundtrack music straight from the original score, or did the Hollywood arrangers modify it?

A. [Studio composers] Carl Stalling and Milt Franklyn were very literal in the way they used the music. The Rabbit of Seville is basically just Rossini’s overture to The Barber of Seville. A Corny Concerto is literally Johann Strauss. It’s not cartoony. That’s why an orchestra like the Milwaukee Symphony can play it so well.

Q. What’s the style of the music in the new cartoons?

A. They have original music by Chris Lennertz. He’s definitely doing his own thing. It’s more contemporary.

Q. What does it say about the 1930s and ’40s and ’50s that classical music was popular in cartoons?

A. High culture was very popular during that time. Everyone listened to classical music on the radio and saw it in the cinema. Everyone knew who Horowitz was, and the great singers, so it was really funny to the public. And [cartoon director] Chuck Jones was poking fun at the pompousness of classical music.

Q. Did you think 30 years ago that this concert would become so popular?

A. No, I thought I’d go back to my orchestra-opera-ballet career, but this took on a life of its own. We’ve done it with 300 orchestras, and this is our fourth time with the Milwaukee Symphony. We’ve played it to 3 million people.

Q. You mentioned ballet, and I’ve heard that conducting film is similar to ballet because the beat has to be exactly the same every time.

A. Not for that reason. You’re working with different casts of dancers, and some like it faster and some like it slower. But they’re both about fitting music to movement. The cartoon is the thing, and the music supports the cartoon, just like in ballet, music supports the dancers.

Q. How do audiences respond to the show?

A. They go nuts. Some of them have tears in their eyes, because they love this material so much and they’ve known it all their life. Also, these cartoons were made for a movie theater, not a TV, or a phone nowadays. You notice a lot more detail, because everything is bigger. And audience laughter is really part of the soundtrack. The cartoons are timed for audience response, and you suddenly realize, oh, that’s why that little pause is there.