Just curious what the responses would be.
Golden Apple Quartet, los Golden en blanco y negro (Golden in black and white), last October in Pamplona’s Baluarte. Sample.
This is about the other show they currently have on, los Golden en serio (seriously Golden). And no, they’re not serious at all.
Spoken parts mostly in Spanish; sung parts in whatever they feel like.
Back in college I went to an Art Blakey concert. The applause went well over a minute. As I understand it, jazz musicians want the audience to earn the encore.
The audience was mostly black. I’d been to jazz concerts before with mostly white audiences; I’d never seen such lengthy applause, and I’d never seen an encore. It was if that audience knew the code. It was very cool to watch.
Probably Pearl Jam at the second night of their 20th anniversary shows at Alpine Valley a year ago September. Most likely between the second and final encores. I can’t say it was really spontaneous, though. Most concerts I go to will have the understanding that the band will play a set, leave the stage for three minutes, the fans will cheer/applaud, and there may be a repeat for a second or even third encore.
Blair Underwood in A Street Car Named Desire this past summer on Broadway. It was an incredible performance.
Cirque du Soliel Amaluna. The balancing lady who was so freaking amazing and awesome.
Ray Davies at The Mountain Winery back in July.
Pete Rose, Sept 11th, 1985
Support staff that did an amazing job.
Senegal vs Mexico in the Olympic football quarter finals this August at Wembley. 82,000 gave both teams a big ovation at the end. (Mexico won 4-2 after extra time, a really good game)
Senior year in college there was a show by all the performance groups for the seniors. Most were okay. Some were good. Pretty much all received standard applause.
But there was one dance group. It was an Indian dance group of some sort. They were amazing. I certainly had never heard of them before and had never seen them perform before. I’d guess that was the case for pretty much everyone, because, you know, Indian Dance Group.
The applause after they finished was noteworthy. I don’t know if it lasted a full minute, but it was pretty awesome and even more awesome that everyone else in the theater felt the same way.
President Obama Monday at the dedication of the Cesar Chavez National Monument.
Hmmm. I more or less do this any time that I stay for the curtain calls at the Metropolitan Opera; I went last week, but I also ducked out as soon as the curtain went down due to being rather hungry by that point.
Leaving that routine aside, it would be when I saw L’Elisir d’Amore last season, maybe six months ago. It was, if I recall, the last performance of that production; the fellow playing Nemorino knocked “Una furtiva legrima”* out of the park. Thunderous applause. Someone, I suspect more than half-joking, yelled “encore!” And… well, he actually did it. Which is a thing that never happens. And then, because of the blocking (which had him take a half-step away after the aria finished, then step back towards center stage, as if having a second thought), it rather came off as if he was milking the applause by stepping back to center stage every time it started to die down.
It wasn’t Rachele Gilmore’s “Doll Song” crazy, as ovations go, but it was impressive.
*It’s conceivable I’ve got the wrong aria, but I’m pretty damn sure that was it. And it was definitely L’Elisir, as there’s a new production this season and that’s the only opera I’ll be seeing this season that I didn’t last.
Dr. Steven Hawkings as he rolled onto the stage to start his talk. (Cupertino, CA, last June)
J.
While watching Australian Pink Floyd on PBS.
A few months ago, while at the Hartford Symphony for Carmina Burana. I didn’t know that something else was going to be played first and the violin soloist was awe-inspiring. I have no clue what he was playing or even what his name is but he made me cry with the feeling he put into his playing. I don’t remember how long we clapped but it was far longer than a minute.
I applauded when he was banned from baseball.
One full minute? Nothing, ever. That’s a long time, one full minute.
I can only think of two, ever -
- Cecilia Bartoli after a rendition from Carmen
- Kenny Rogers, perfect game
Christopher Plummer after his one man show at the Stratford Festival this summer. He was so good.