Stamp of the Month: November 2020

Bugs Bunny

To mark the 80th anniversary of the first screening of the Bugs Bunny short films, a series of 10 stamps with scenes from these comics was released in the USA. One of the stamps shows Bugs Bunny as a pianist in “Rhapsody Rabbit”. This animated short film was part of the “Merrie Melodies Series” and was produced under the direction of Friz Freleng. It was released in cinemas on November 9, 1946 by Warner Bros. Pictures. Like all short films in the “Merrie Melodies Series”, “Rhapsody Rabbit” was accompanied by a piece of music: Bugs Bunny plays Franz Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2”. The pianist was the American composer and arranger Carl W. Stalling (1891-1972).

USA 27.7.2020

 
By the way, there are 10 other Bugs Bunny short films with 14 other pieces of classical music: “Tales from the Vienna Woods” and “Blue Danube” (Johann Strauss II, in “A Corny Concerto”, 1943), “Hungarian Dances” (Johannes Brahms, in “Pigs in a Polka”, 1943), “Dreaming” (Robert Schumann, in: “Hare Ribbin”, 1944), “William Tell Overture” (Gioachino Rossini, “Bugs Bunny Rides Again”, 1948), Ludwig van Beethoven’s 7th (in “A Ham in a Role”, 1949), “Largo al Factotum” from “The Barber of Seville” (Rossini, in “The Long-Haired Hare”, 1949), “The Barber of Seville Overture” (in “The Rabbit of Seville”, 1950), “Minute Waltz” (Frédéric Chopin, in “Hyde and Hare”, 1955), “Dance of the Comedians” from “The Bartered Bride” (Bedrich Smetana, in “Zoom and Bored”, 1957), the Overture from “The Flying Dutchman”, “Pilgrim’s Chorus” from “Tannhäuser” and “Ride of the Valkyries” from “Die Walküre” by Richard Wagner (in “What’s Opera, Doc?”, 1957), and finally “Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna” by Franz von Suppé (in “Baton Bunny”, 1959).