October 30, 2011
What an unexpected surprise Sue, Mark, and I had yesterday!!! Another wonderful experience that I got to have that I would not have even imagined. Photo Album of Pictures I took here.
My Friends Sue and Mark
On Thursday, Sue was talking with her friend Valerie and Sue mentioned that I am in town visiting. Sue asked Valerie if her husband Paul is still in the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, and she said yes. This weekend Bass Hall in Fort Worth has “Warner Bros. Presents Bugs Bunny at the Symphony.” We saw it advertised and thought about going. Valerie said she would see if she could get us some complimentary tickets. We thought that would be great. Valeries husband called on Saturday morning and said they could give us 2 complimentary tickets for Saturday night. Sue called Bass Hall and was able to buy a ticket for Mark in the seat and row in front of us.
Bass Performance Hall
We got downtown to Bass Performance Hall and Mark parked the car while Sue and I went into Barnes and Noble across the street. Sue bought each of us a giant chocolate chip cookie to snack on during intermission. It was a great cookie!!! Another special treat!!! We had to sneak them into the building in our pocketbooks.
Bass Performance Hall was completed about the same time as I moved from Fort Worth to Florida and I had seen it from the outside but not been inside it until last night. There are giant Angels on the outside corners of the building playing horns that come out from the building. The Angels are almost as tall as the building is. 
It is an amazing structure, both designwise and acoustically. The ceilings have cupolas which are painted, and there is other design work all around it. Even the bathrooms are really done creatively. There are black and white tiles that look sort of like musical notes around the top of the walls, and every now and then one of the stall doors has a musical note painted on it. I could not resist taking this picture. I made sure no one was around.
Ladies Room Stall doors at Bass Hall
We got to our seats, which were in the 4th row, left side, in front of the orchestra. There was a movie screen above the front of the stage showing the Warner Bros. logo with Bugs Bunny. The orchestra was on stage and the screen hung above them.
When the show first began, the conductor of the Fort Worth Symphony came on stage in a Texas Ranger t-shirt and baseball cap, and jeans. The orchestra played Deep in the Heart of Texas and we all got to clap at the appropriate times. It was fun. Then he turned the stage over to a guest conductor, who is the man that created this show with the cartoons and music. We were not only mesmerized by the wonderful music we heard, and the stories about how the music was incorporated into the original cartoons, but also we laughed when watching the cartoons. We noticed how violent they were, but we still laughed as Bugs Bunny conducted the orchestra, while the mouse tried to also conduct. We saw cartoons with Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd and the dog, Wiley Coyote and Road Runner, Tom and Jerry, Flintstones, Scooby Doo, Tweety Bird and the cat and dog, and a few others.
The conductor continually displayed motions that showed he was letting Bugs Bunny conduct the orchestra. During several songs, the orchestra and conductor wore headphones with a click track (a sort of metronomic guide, that allowed the orchestra players to re-create the original soundtrack with surprising exactitude and music that was precise to the action on screen. At times I forgot there was a live orchestra, the music sounded just like it was part of the cartoon.
The conductor explained how the music was played by the Warner Bros. Orchestra when the cartoons were originally made. He explained some of the differences between the different cartoonists and musical directors during the span of years when the Bugs Bunny cartoons were made and how each one saw Bugs differently with different personalities and the music and cartoons reflected it. The Fort Worth Symphony was exceptional in playing the music to the cartoons. The conductor told the audience that he has been performing this show all over the world, and the audiences love it.
Some of the tunes we heard or cartoons we saw were “Baton Buddy, What’s Up Doc, Rhapsody Rabbit, Zoom and Bored, Home Tweet Home, Tom and Jerry at the Hollywood Bowl (Tom and Jerry were conducting while trying to displace each other at the podium), Bedrock Ballet, A Corny Concerto, Long-Haired Hare, and That’s All Folks.”
Cartoons included: “Rhapsody Rabbit, The Rabbit of Seville, and What’s Opera, Doc?” The music used in the original cartoons, and played during the performance, were some of the most classic of classical music.
I found this link to watch a snipit of the Houston performance, and this one, I’m sure you can do a search and see other videos. Here’s another link for a different performance, and here too.
Orchestra and Screen Inside Bass Performance Hall Building in downtown Fort Worth
More photos in Photo Gallery.
Below is the link to the Bugs Bunny at the Symphony home page:
https://www.bugsbunnyatthesymphony.net/concert.htmlp://www.bugsbunnyatthesymphony.net/concert.html
