Word: clapped
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...house's long history. At a signal, 30 hand-clappers burst into applause, almost always sweeping a large part of the audience with them. Says Carrara: "The claque is absolutely necessary, not only for the artists, but because some operas are so boring that nobody would clap if we didn't boost up the atmosphere...
...Clapping fees remain surprisingly low -$5 to $7 a night - because the directors alone are paid, while subordinates clap merely for admission. A certain amount of applause comes free. "Naturally, when an artist pays, we feel like applauding stronger," says Carrara, "but even if he doesn't pay, we still applaud because it is our duty to keep up the atmosphere and spirit of the performance." Most Italian singers approve of the claque, but as a general rule other European singers and Americans resent it. Soprano Leontyne Price has even paid the claque not to applaud...
Visitors to Italy are often puzzled that the claque is disappearing elsewhere but still seems necessary in the very birth place of opera. The explanation, says Carrara, lies in the national temperament : "Italians are too lazy to clap, so we have to help them...
This New Year an estimated 45 million Japanese will flock to Shinto shrines to watch the Kagura dancing. As they approach the altars, worshipers will clap their hands (a sign of rejoicing), silently pray for divine protection, and drop some coins into the waiting coffers as they leave. Meiji shrine alone expects a minimum of 2.000,000 visitors-which is also "the physical maximum we can accommodate." says Hiroshi Taniguchi. the shrine's leading ritualist...
...curtain is up. The theater is dark. A woman screams. Someone eerily whistles Three Blind Mice. Pistol shots clap the air for the 3,745th time. Thus Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap moved into its tenth year in residence in London's Ambassadores Theater last week...