Extremely long ovations in ballet, opera, etc.: For real, exaggeration or hogwash?

I was just watching a profile of a dancer on TV. They reported that she received a 20 minute ovation in Germany once. This reminded me of other stories I have heard about singers and dancers, usually from decades or centuries gone by, who supposedly have gotten incredibly long ovations – dozens and dozens of curtain calls lasting, I assume, something like an hour long.

Are these stories for real? I mean, just think what it must be like to stand there for 30 minutes or more just clapping like a moron. (Jeezus, I’d rather be drowned!) If so, how does it work?

Is it staged, with “plants” in the audience to sustain the clapping?

Do many people leave, so that it’s just a core group of fools doing all the applauding?

After, say, ten minutes, does it become more of a game the audience plays with itself than a tribute to the performer? Do they go, “Yeah, he was good, but let’s see how long we can keep this up!” Sort of like a high-brow stadium “wave”?

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This thread is crapping faster than a fat man after a prune-eating contest.

Give a guy a break. Write *something. *

Bump.

I got nuthin’

But I’ll tell a story from a Bennett Cerf humor collection:

One night, at the end of the symphony, during a long, enthusiastic ovation, a rich society lady noticed two ushers clapping harder than anyone else.

It almost brought a tear to her eye. “Those boys appreciate music more than all of these stuffshirts”, she thought to herself.

She was brought back to earth, however, when she overheard one of them say to the other, “Keep it up – two more minutes, and we’re on overtime!”

I subscribe to the Seattle Symphony and the Seattle Opera. The ovations at their venues are different in length from time to time depending on how good the perfomance is, just as is expected. Each time there are a few folks who go hog wild (perhaps friends or groupies), but they get tired out and there aren’t enough to make a dent. If the audience was truly impressed, the ovation will go longer. If the performance was not as good, it just won’t sustain enough people.

Why? At the symphony, there is a chance at encore (meaning free extra music), especially if there is a featured guest artist on the last piece. Sometimes, though, the artist tells the house that it just can’t happen, the house turns up the lights and the ovation ends right then.

The ovations at the opera are much longer and there are more groupies. I have never seen an encore at the opera, by the way. The longest ovation I ever heard there was about ten minutes. One thing that lengthens these ovations are that people are introduced serially, at first. So there is 10-30 seconds for each character, plus the conductor, plus the ensemble, plus (sometimes) the director and/or writer. Then they stand a s a group for curtain calls.

Only been to local stuff (musicals, operas, etc.), but here is my observation:

When extra long clapping is good:
(1) everyone is still pumped from the show
(2) the performance, in general, was excellent
(3) you want to whistle too
(4) your still waiting for your fav character to come out and take a bow
(5) you don’t notice your hands stinging
(6) you don’t want to go home
(7) you want to rove around town all caught up in the moment

When extra long clapping is bad:
(1) everyone looks around at each other like “that’s all?”
(2) the performance, in general, was okay
(3) you wonder if the people whistling are family members of the cast
(4) you had no fav characters
(5) your hands sting and you stop clapping
(6) you just want to go home (leave people leave!)
(7) no roving, just home

Seriously, I have been to performances were the clapping lasted 5-8 minutes, and where it lasted 2-3 minutes before people are nearly crawling over each other trying to leave. I, personally, could never clap for 20 minutes. I don’t care how good you are.

Though, I will say, what I dislike more is clapping in inappropriate places during a show, like in the middle of a meaningful pause during someone’s aria. Please, people! They get a look on their face when you are supposed to clap. Watch for the face! And then, as soon as the finish their song, don’t SCREAM out Bravo! to make up for your inappropriate clapping!! Geez!