Claqueur
A claqueur ( French claquer , to clap) refers to a person who delivers paid applause at a play or other public performance . The purpose of the claqueur is to get the audience to applaud. The entirety of the claqueurs in a theater is called "the claque ".
history
Around 1820, Monsieur Sauton in Paris offered an "Assurance de succès dramatique" for a fee, a "guarantee of dramaturgical success". In the jargon of the Parisians, those who did the job were called "Chevaliers de luster", knights of the chandelier . The Claque's offers found buyers primarily in France . However, they went out of fashion as early as the first quarter of the 20th century. In 1844 Heinrich Heine reported on the ovation costs for the rental enthusiasts in addition to the costs for laurel wreaths, flower bouquets with the most precious camellias and praise poems , which Franz Liszt and the singer Giovanni Battista Rubini accompanying him on his concert tour were invoiced by their manager Gaetano Belloni.
There was also well-ordered applause at the Vienna Opera in the 1930s and the Metropolitan Opera in New York in the 1940s.
system
The tasks of the claque were assigned to specialized people. In detail there were:
- Chauffeurs (stokers): During the day they stood in front of the announcements and had to praise the play in front of the bystanders.
- Chatouilleurs (clitoris): Before the beginning of the performance and during the breaks, you expressed yourself positively about the performances.
- Connoisseurs (Kenner): They had the task of making during fall of the imagination positive remarks.
- Rieurs (laughs): You had to infect those around you with your “spontaneous” laughter.
- Pleureurs (Howlers): Your job was to sob during touching scenes.
- Tapageurs (sensation): You had to applaud heavily.
- Bisseurs (“repeaters”, “encore” callers): After the performance they shouted “ da capo ” and “ encore ” (Italian “bis”).
Figurative meaning
In a figurative sense, a claqueur can also be used to describe someone who delivers an overly enthusiastic approval - for example, as a listener to a political speech at a party congress.
As Jubelperser a group of around 150 Iranian nationals was referred to the Shah's visit in 1967 by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi vorgingen accompanied and his wife Farah Pahlavi on June 2, 1967 in West Berlin and violence against demonstrators.
literature
- Meyers Lexikon , 7th edition, Volume 2, Bibliographisches Institut , Leipzig 1925
- Ludwig Kalisch : The Knights of the Chandelier . In: The Gazebo . Issue 49, 1867, pp. 782-784 ( full text [ Wikisource ]).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Heinrich Heine: Musical season of 1844 . (Zeno)
- ↑ Farewell to the great Claquechef . In: Die Zeit , No. 20/1953. “And the amateurs of applause soon turned into professionals. They were all young opera fanatics who gladly indulged their musical vice and their art of applauding for free. (...) When you go to the theater with [the Viennese Claquechef], he literally feverishes: 'Now a few short, hard blows ... then let it run out, so, now the whole house applauds!' So it takes a sure instinct not to miss the right moment of applause. "