When we think of Sunday morning cartoons we probably think more of a “wascally wabbit” and a “wiley” coyote than we do the works of Rossini and von Suppe - but the writers at Warner Brothers used the works of these composers, among others, as the basis of the scores they composed to popular Looney Tunes sketches.

        But last Saturday evening's Pops performance, Bugs Bunny on Broadway, gave the scores of Warner Brothers composers Carl Stalling and Milt Franklin the spotlight - with the Pops orchestra playing the scores as classic Looney Tunes cartoons played on the screen overhead.

        Created by conductor George Daugherty, a University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music graduate, Bugs Bunny on Broadway has been performed on Broadway and has sold out houses around the world.

        After he took the stage, Mr. Daugherty spoke of the current world events, gave a rousing “show must go on” speech, and called upon the mostly adult audience - for the concert opener - the singing of “The Star Spangled Banner.”

        The the Pops orchestra followed with Richard Wagner's The Ride of the Valkyries, a musical rollercoaster ride with rises and dips in the strings and alarming brass parts, and (of course) The Warner Bros. Fanfare by Max Steiner. Afterward, the a screen was lowered above the orchestra and the audience settled into a cozy, lazy Sunday morning feel - to watch sketches like “Baton Bunny” in which conductor Bugs Bunny sweats through a version of Franz von Suppe's Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna and the Academy Award-nominated sketch, “High Note” in which animated musical notes - one drunk - try to perform Johann Strauss' “The Blue Danube.”

        In some sketches the Pops orchestra was replaced by programmed music and in some cases, like “One Froggy Evening” - about a showtune singing frog - they were truly missed. At other times, it worked - as if Mr. Daugherty's aim was to showcase the Pops orchestra - not use them as mere background music. A case in point was Eric Kim's cello solo from von Suppe's “The Beautiful Galathea” - which was as captivating as anything shown overhead.

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