Artists: Carl Stalling, Chuck Jones, Michael Maltese (uncredited: Nicolai G. Shutorov vocals)
Episode: Long-Haired Hare
Favourite Quote:
Of course you know, this means WAR!
Why?: In honour of World Opera Day I present a classic.
Let's be brutally honest here. I, like most people my age, got educated in Opera from these guys. Many a Saturday morning was spent seated in front of the TV in our PJs, eating far-too-sweet candy-like cereal, watching the crazy antics of these guys. Were the cartoons wildly inappropriate? YES! Violent? Absolutely! Filled with great music? You betcha! It was amazing we ever made it out of the 80s alive! I could rant on about our overly-sensitive culture today, but as usual, I digress.
It was a toss up between this cartoon and the ones featuring Bugs with Elmer Fudd in 'Rabbit of Seville' or the amazing Wagner-eque 'What's Opera, Doc?'.
You have to admit, Giovanni Jones must be one of the best vocalists around (albeit a fictional one) based on this cartoon alone. Then there's Bugs Bunny, the jack-of-all-trades musician. I can't think of many people who can boast being able to play a banjo, harp and sousaphone, and then pull off a convincing impersonation of the great conductor Leopold Stokowski.
My love of opera comes from Bugs Bunny and my mother. You see, my parents were patient with me watching these cartoons. My mother could find a teachable moment in almost every television show we watched. She used to be a nurse, prior to her career as mom. For example, with every medical drama she could tell you with further detail what the procedure entailed. With Looney Tunes, she would tell me what opera a song was from and a little summary of what the opera was about. She would tell me she'd seen one of the Wagner operas performed live when she was in West Germany. She lived so many experiences and TV seemed to be one of the ways she'd tell me about them.
Happy world opera day!
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