What's Opera, Doc?

The completion of a Wagner Ring cycle in London prompted a segment of this program that takes a light-hearted look at Wagner. A light-hearted look seems best, since by all accounts, Richard Wagner would have been a great person to invite to dinner if you wanted to hear him say how great he was all through dinner.

This program includes the soundtrack from the animated Bugs Bunny short, "What's Opera, Doc?", a spoof of Wagner's operas. The music is almost entirely from Richard Wagner's works, including the Ring of The Nibelungs cycle, the Flying Dutchman, Tannhäuser, and Tristan and Isolde. Afficionados of Bugs Bunny will be interested to know that "That Oscar-winning Rabbit" earned his award with this animated short.


Paul Lansky: Idle Chatter				     (CD: More Than
							      Idle Chatter)

G. F. Händel						  (CD: Händel: Suites
	Suite No. 7, B-flat major			      for Keyboard)
	Suite No. 2, F major
		(Keith Jarrett, piano)

Norman Dello Joio: Meditations on Ecclesiastes		  (CD: Oregon Symphony
		(Oregon Symphony; James DePreist)	    / James DePreist)

Sven-David Sandström: A Cradle Song / The Tiger 	   (CD: Scandinavian
		(Danish National Radio			     Contemporary A
		 Choir; Stefan Parkman) 			Capella)

Pablo Casals: Eucaristica				   (CD: Pablo Casals:
		(Escolania de Montserrat;		  Sacred Choral Music)
		 Ireneu Segarra)

William Boyce: Tell me, lovely Shepherd 		 (CD: Golden Favourites
		(Paul Phoenix, treble;			     from St. Paul's
		 Barry Rose, piano)			       Cathedral)

Francis Jackson: Benedicite omnia opera 		 (CD: My Beloved Spake)
		(Choir of St. Mary's Episcopal
		 Cathedral, Edinburgh; Dennis Townhill)

Anna Russell: The Ring of the Nibelungs: An analysis	       (CD: Anna
							     Russell Sings?)

Richard Wagner: Dawn and Siegfried's Rhine Journey	     (CD: Toscanini
		(NBC Symphony Orchestra;		  Collection, Vol. 49)
		 Arturo Toscanini)

What's Opera Doc
		(Bugs Bunny & Elmer Fudd)

Henry Purcell: King Arthur				     (CD: Purcell:
	Trumpet tune					      King Arthur)
	Ye blustr'ing brethren
		(Brian Scott (Aeolus), baritone;
		 English Concert & Choir; Trevor
		 Pinnock)

Purcell: Suite from Abdelazer				  (CD: Purcell: Ayres
	Overture					    for the Theatre)
	Rondeau
		(The Parley of
		 Instruments; Peter Holman)

Benjamin Britten: The Young Person's Guide to the	(CD: Peter and the Wolf
	Orchestra					 / Young Person's Guide
		(French National			    to the Orchestra)
		 Orchestra; Lorin Maazel)


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