Twenty-fifth anniversary show brings together classical orchestras and Warner Bros. cartoons (photo © 2012 by George Daugherty)
Who: New York Philharmonic, conductor George Daugherty, and special guest Whoopi Goldberg (May 15-16)
What: Bugs Bunny at the Symphony II
Where: Avery Fisher Hall, 10 Lincoln Center Plaza, Broadway between West 62nd & West 65th Sts.
When: May 14-16, $55–$145, 7:30 (plus 2:00 matinee on May 16)
Why: Tickets are going fast for the twenty-fifth anniversary of “Bugs Bunny at the Symphony,” in which the New York Philharmonic plays live scores to classic Warner Bros. cartoons projected behind the orchestra on a big screen. Among the Looney Tunes favorites, all featuring classical music, of course, are What’s Opera, Doc?, Rabbit of Seville, A Corny Concerto, and Rhapsody Rabbit. We learned everything we know about classical music from two sources, Merrie Melodies and Stanley Kubrick films, so we were thrilled when we saw “Bugs Bunny on Broadway” back in 1990, and now we’re even more thrilled that it’s coming back our way for four shows at Avery Fisher Hall May 14-16.
No, with Seymour: An Introduction, Ethan Hawke hasn’t managed the nearly impossible, filming an adaptation of the J. D. Salinger story about a young man who commits suicide. Instead, Hawke uses the title for his beautifully touching, life-affirming portrait of octogenarian composer and musician Seymour Bernstein. An extraordinary pianist, the Newark-born Bernstein started playing when he was three, began giving lessons when he was fifteen, and, when he turned fifty, decided to stop performing recitals despite great critical success, in order to concentrate on teaching and composing and to avoid his stage fright and the negative aspects of commercial fame. After meeting at a dinner party, Hawke and Bernstein hit it off and agreed to collaborate on the project, which was filmed over the course of two years. Hawke, in his first documentary and third feature as director (following Chelsea Walls and The Hottest State), shows Bernstein holding master classes in auditoriums, teaching in his cramped New York City apartment, talking in a café with former student and current New York Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman, and selecting just the right piano for a recital Hawke convinces him to give at the Steinway & Sons showroom on West Fifty-Seventh St.; in addition, Hawke speaks with such other Bernstein friends as writer and scholar Andrew Harvey, pianist and lecturer Joseph Smith, and musician and songwriter Kimball Gallagher. 