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A Brief History of the Claque

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2010

A. H. Saxon
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Extract

In Pittsburgh a well-known actress makes her entrance on the stage of the Nixon, and, so that there may be no danger of a provincialaudience mistaking the show's principal, her manager leads the applause from the wings. In Paris the renowned author of Ulysses establishes himself as leader of a fan club at the Opéra, and becomes such a nuisance that the director finally replaces the lauded singer.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Theatre Survey , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , May 1964, pp. 10 - 26
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 1964

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References

NOTES

1 Webster's New International Dictionary, 2nd edition.

2 The “mafia” of the opera.

3 11. 419–421.

4 Satire VII, 11. 63–72; in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis, trans, by Wm. Gifford (1803).

5 Book VII, epistle 24; in Letters, trans, by Wm. Melmoth (1923).

6 Ibid., Book II, epistle 14.

7 Dio Cassius, Roman History, trans, by Earnest Cary (1925), VIII, pp. 79–81. Tacitus, Annals 14:15; in The Complete Works of Tacitus, ed. by Moses Hadas and trans, by A. J. Church and Wm. J. Brodribb (1942), p. 329.

8 Suetonius, , The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, ed. by Eugene Reed, J. and trans, by Thomson, Alexander (1889), vol. II, p. 21.Google Scholar

9 The Complete Works of Tacitus, 401, Annals 16:5.

10 The Anecdota, or Secret History; vol. 6, p. 81, of Procopius, trans, by H. B. Dewing (1935).

11 Gilder, Rosamond, Enter the Actress (1931), p. 58.Google Scholar

12 An Apology for His Life (1938), pp. 121–122.

13 Theophilus Cibber, To David Garrick, Esq; with Dissertations on Theatrical Subjects (1759), Second Dissertation, pp. 14–15.

14 Thaler, Alwin, Shakspere to Sheridan (1922), p. 275Google Scholar; Watson, Ernest Bradlee, Sheridan to Robertson, A Study of the Nineteenth Century London Stage (1926), p. 104.Google Scholar Frederick Reynolds estimated he had given out 150 orders to each of his productions, or more than 15,000 in all during his career: The Life and Times of Frederick Reynolds (1826), vol. I, p. 269.

15 The English opera might prove an exception to this statement.

16 Grand Dictionnaire Universel, ed. by Pierre Larousse (1865), vol. IV, p. 385. Further information on de la Morlière may be found in Biographie Universelle Ancienne et Moderne, ed. by L. G. Michaud (c. 1855), vol. XXIX, pp. 344–345.

17 Deprés, M., “Notice sur Dorat,” in Oeuvres Choisies de Dorat (1827), xv.Google Scholar

18 Robert, (pseudo. for Louis Castel), Mémoires d'un Claqueur (1829), pp. 295–296.Google Scholar

19 Quoted in Prudhomme, L., Miroir Historique, Politique, et Critique de L'ancien et du Nouveau Paris et du Département de la Seine (1807), vol. I, pp. 264–266.Google ScholarTableau de Paris was published in 1781.

20 In Russia the battle was resumed, this time against the great Semenova, and by 1811 there were two opposing camps in Moscow, the Georgists and the Semenovists. See Slonim, Marc, Russian Theatre from the Empire to the Soviets (1961), p. 40.Google Scholar

21 Miroir Historique, I, pp. 262–263.

22 Juvenes and curatores (“youths,” or “charges,” and “directors”) is indicative of the claque's Roman antecedents, of which the French were well aware, and may also allude to the practice of giving poor students tickets on condition they would applaud (“We shall go to the opera; we shall go with the claque”-Hugo). Claqueurs were also frequently referred to as Remains. The term chevaliers du lustre refers to the stationing of the main body of the claque in the middle of the parterre beneath the grand chandelier.

The following description of the various types of claqueurs and their organization is based largely on Mémoires d'un Claqueur and Grand Dictionnaire Universel.

23 Argot for “to sell.”

24 Mr. John Bennett (see below) informs me that Verdi and Puccini made such marginal notes in their scores.

25 Grand Dictionnaire Universel, vol. IV, p. 385.

26 Dumas, Alexandre, My Memoirs, trans, by Waller, E. M. (1907), vol. V, p. 510.Google Scholar

27 Crosten, Wm. L., French Grand Opera, an Art and a Business (1948), pp. 43–44.Google Scholar

28 Quoted in The International Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians, ed. by Oscar Thompson (1944), p. 342.

29 Mémoires d'un Claquer, pp. 34–39.

30 Ibid., pp. 66–69, 220, 301, 320. The author of these memoirs paid 6,000 francs for the post of chef de claque at the Opéra.

31 My Memoirs, vol. IV, pp. 30–32.

32 Mémoires d'un Claqueur, pp. 393–394.

33 The following account is from an interview with Mr. Bennett on 3 April 1963.

34 Wechsberg, Joseph, “The Battle of the Claque,” in Sweet and Sour (1948), p. 87.Google Scholar

35 On the evening of 20 February 1962 the management of the Metropolitan passed out to its patrons a notice warning against the “… ill-mannered, noisy, and annoying shouting demonstrations usually led by the paid claque” and threatened to cut out standing-room unless such demonstrations were curtailed.