The Washington times., 1920-05-16
NERO HAD CLAQUt'
G|VEH|MAPPLAUSE
Fret Became an institution at
Paris Opera, Writes Oscar
Thompson.

America a most interesting article on
the origin aud growth OF the elsaue.
He says;
Chicago's discovery that its opera
has a claQue scarcely startled Amer
lea. Revelations growing out OF the
Baklanoff imbroglio. though suffici-
entity malodorous. did not make
very malignant monster OF this tradi-
tional and much denounced operatlc
appendsge,, !, which Italy acquired from
France and then passed on TO Amer
lea. or more concern as Involving
the good name of opera were Admis-
sions said to have been made regard
Ing the shaking down OF artists by
lesser employees or the opera house In
ways not connected with paid ap-
plause. In Chicago, as In New YORK,
the claque seems TO have been 4 more
or less harmless nuisance from which
the individuals graft was relatively
small, and the results nil as far as
making or breaking the career OF an
artist, good or bad. Its tolerauon, In
any degree or state, is, the thing that
ofefnds American audiences.
CIasue Has LesE History.
Like the poor, the claaue has al
ways been with us. Suetonius affirrus
that Nero had 5000 soldiers present
to sec him act and to chant an en-
comium. whether there WAS a claque
TO applaud Nero's fiddling as Rome
burned Suetonius does not state. The
Greek classic dramatists doubtless
saw to II that their friends were
present when their plays were per-
formed. What the friends did. in re-
Turn. can be left to any logical mans
conjecture. 1t Is not probable that
they hissed.
"There Is no more common error
with regard to the claque than as
sailing IL as an Italian institution.
The very word is French and had to
be introduced into the Italian Ian
guage. The institution, as an insti-
tuition was unknown in Italy even so
late as the early Rossini operas.
DoubtlcssNthere was paid applause. as
there had been in Greece and imperial
Rome; but IL is to Paris that the pry-
Ing eye must turn to find the estab-
iishment OF the institutional claQue
as the world has known ii for the last
hundred years.
Prominent In Meycrbeer Ern.
"The operate claquc. it is fair to
say, belongs by right OF birth and
nurture to the Paris opera as truly
as the ballet and the grand manner.
It can no moro be divorced from tho
history OF that famous pulpitum of
song than the operas of Meyerbeer.
II was in the Meyerbeerian era that
the claque came to be, and IL was as
logically a part of it's age as orches'
trail shivers and trumpet calls. bob
bling ballerians with their thirty-two o
fouettcs. and opera books that dealt
with kings and things and burning
oil.
Numerous authorities give the
birth of the institutional claque as
the year 1870. They credit on Sauton
(also spelled Santon) with being the
master mind. aided and abettcd by
one Porcher They hung out their
shingle, for they were in regular
business, the business of assuring
dramatic success-L'Assuranc des
Success Dramatique. By 1880 the
claque was a full-bloom institution,
collecting by day and applauding by
night. all in the honest open. 1t was
the custom for the management OF
the theatcr to send a request for any
given number OF claquers. under
suitable chef dc claquc.
Noted by Victor Hugo.
took note of the institution when he
wrote, The claque of the grand opera
Is very select and again, We will go
to the opera We will go in with the
claaue.'
In the Paris claque, as il flourished
in the days OF Meyerbeer and the
grand manner. each claqueur had his
special role allotted him, according to
his talents, and the assignment list
reads like a comic opera cast There
was the rieur. officially SO styled. His
business was to laugh at the comic
sallies, and he was picked as a rieur
because he had an infectious laugh.
There was the pleureur, who wept
through the pathetic passages.
"The pleureur or pleureuse, usually
was feminine claaueur. copiously
armed with handkerchiefs, sometimes
laden with tear-compelling lotions
which offended the olfactory organs
OF nasute persons in adjacent seats.
There was the bisseur. whose task il
was to shout Ibis" and encore" and
an individual variously styled but
most often referred to as "the tick
ler." who was an expert in keeping
his neighbors in good humor, passing
about bonbons, thcater bills. and
spicy stories.
Ciaque Chief Above Critics.
"Of appropriate dignity and i'm
portance we're the commissaires, who
learned the opera or play by heart
and who, by conversation or other
wise, learnedly called it's good points
to the attention of less enlightened
folk. All were under the direction of
a chef dc claque, who frequently was
an excellent musician and who con-
sidered himself somewhat superior to
the critics.
"A1l this grew out OF Sauton's
Assurance des Success Dramatiques.-
Sauton is said to have derived his
idea from Jean Daurat. a sixteenth
century French poet. who, reading OF
Nero's methods of gaining the pub
lies plaudits, distributed tickets for
one Of his own plays in return for
promises Of applause. IL seems prob
able that even Sauton had no idea OF
.n,i, an elaborate institution as re-