Claque
Aclaqueis an organized body of professionalapplaudersinFrenchtheatres andopera houses.Members of a claque are calledclaqueurs.
History
[edit]Hiring people to applaud dramatic performances was common inclassical times.For example, when theEmperor Neroacted, he had his performance greeted by anencomiumchanted by five thousand of hissoldiers.[1]
This inspired the French poetJean Daurat(1508–1588) to develop the modern claque. Buying a number of tickets for a performance of one of his plays, he gave them away in return for a promise of applause. In 1820 claques underwent serious systematization when an agency inParisopened to manage and supply claqueurs.[1]
By 1830 the claque had become an institution. The manager of a theatre or opera house could send an order for any number of claqueurs. These usually operated under achef de claque(leader of applause), who judged where the efforts of theclaqueurswere needed and initiated the demonstration of approval. This could take several forms. There would becommissaires( "officers/commissioner" ) who learned the piece by heart and called the attention of their neighbors to its good points between the acts.Rieurs(laughers) laughed loudly at the jokes.Pleureurs(criers), generally women, feigned tears, by holding their handkerchiefs to their eyes.Chatouilleurs(ticklers) kept the audience in a good humor, whilebisseurs(encore-ers) simply clapped and cried "Bis! Bis!"to requestencores.[1]
The practice spread to Italy (famously atLa Scala,Milan),Vienna,London(Covent Garden) andNew York(theMetropolitan Opera). Claques were also used as a form ofextortion,assingerswere commonly contacted by thechef de claquebefore their debut and forced to pay a fee in order to avoid beingbooed.
Richard Wagnerwithdrew a staging of his operaTannhäuserfrom theParisian operaticrepertory after the claque of theJockey Clubderisively interrupted its initial performances[2][3]in March 1861.
LaterArturo ToscaniniandGustav Mahlerdiscouraged claques, as a part of the development ofconcert etiquette.
Although the practice mostly died out during the mid- to late-20th century, instances of actors paid to applaud at performances still occasionally appear, most famously with theBolshoi Ballet.[4]
See also
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Notes
[edit]- ^abcOne or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911). "Claque".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 423.
- ^Millington, Barry, ed. (1992).The Wagner compendium: a guide to Wagner's life and music.New York: Schirmer Books. p. 281.ISBN9780028713595.
- ^Grey, Thomas S. (2013). "Tannhäuser, Paris scandal of 1861". In Vazsonyi, Nicholas (ed.).The Cambridge Wagner Encyclopedia.Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. pp. 581–583.ISBN9781107004252.
- ^ Barry, Ellen (14 August 2013)."Wild Applause, Secretly Choreographed".The New York Times.Archivedfrom the original on 15 August 2013.Retrieved22 May2020.
References
[edit]
- The Oxford Dictionary of Opera,by John Warrack and Ewan West (1992), 782 pages,ISBN0-19-869164-5