Touching History

Last night I touched history.

I took Emily and James to Bugs Bunny at the Symphony and after the show the conductor and show’s creator, George Daugherty, invited us backstage for a few minutes. In the picture I’m holding the original Dobro slide guitar that was used in the Looney Tunes cartoons of the 30s and 40s. George even let James have a quick go at making one of the classic Looney Tunes sound effects with the guitar. (Click the photo for a much closer look.)

I wrote about the show a couple of days ago in my post Bugs Bunny at the Symphony. Last night we got to experience it … and oh what an experience.

Bugs Bunny at the Symphony has been described as a spectacular fusion of classic Warner Bros. cartoons projected on the big screen, accompanied by their original scores played live by the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. It didn’t disappoint. The richness of the orchestra combined beautifully with the genious of those early cartoons. George gave the audience an entertaining thumbnail sketch of the cartoons’ history, highlighting the amazing musical talents of those who created the scores of the pieces we experienced.

We were kept entertained by the antics of the world’s most popular Looney Tunes characters including Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig, and of course Bugs Bunny, featuring in classics such as What’s Opera, Doc?, The Rabbit of Seville, Long- Haired Hare, A Corny Concerto and many more favourites.

Bugs Bunny at the Symphony was performed at Burswood Theatre three times across Friday and Saturday.

Emmy Award winner George Daugherty has conducted almost every major American symphony orchestra as well as a long list of international ensembles. It was an absolute pleasure to catch up with him after the show. The invite to meet with him came after he was my special guest on 98.5 Sonshine FM several days ago. You can hear our conversation by clicking the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.

I do hope that George makes it back to Perth sometime soon.



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About the author

Rodney Olsen

Rodney is a husband, father, cyclist, blogger and podcaster from Perth Western Australia.

He has worked in radio at Perth's media ministry Sonshine for over 25 years and has previously worked at ministries such as Compassion Australia and Bible Society.

The views he expresses here are his own.

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