{{short description|Body of professional applauders in French theatres and opera houses}} {{distinguish|calque|clique|clack (disambiguation){{!}}clack}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}} [[File:Honoré Daumier, Bohémiens de Paris - Le claqueur, 1842.jpg|thumbnail|{{Lang|fr|Le claqueur}} by Honoré Daumier, 1842]] A '''claque''' is an organized body of professional applauders in French theatres and opera houses. Members of a claque are called '''claqueurs'''.

==History== Hiring people to applaud dramatic performances was common in classical times. For example, when the Emperor Nero acted, he had his performance greeted by an encomium chanted by five thousand of his soldiers.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911 |inline=y |wstitle= Claque |volume= 6 | page= 423 }}</ref>

The recollection of this gave the 16th-century French poet, Jean Daurat, an idea which has developed into the modern claque. Buying up a number of tickets for a performance of one of his plays, Daurat distributed them to people who promised to give him applause. In 1820 claques underwent serious systematization when an agency in Paris opened to manage and supply claqueurs.<ref name="EB1911"/>

By 1830 the claque had become an institution. The manager of a theatre or opera house could send an order for any number of claqueurs. These usually operated under a {{Lang|fr|chef de claque}} (leader of applause), who judged where the efforts of the ''claqueurs'' were needed and initiated the demonstration of approval. This could take several forms. There would be {{Lang|fr|commissaires}} ("officers/commissioner") who learned the piece by heart and called the attention of their neighbors to its good points between the acts. {{Lang|fr|Rieurs}} (laughers) laughed loudly at the jokes. {{Lang|fr|Pleureurs}} (criers), generally women, feigned tears, by holding their handkerchiefs to their eyes. {{Lang|fr|Chatouilleurs}} (ticklers) kept the audience in a good humor, while {{Lang|fr|bisseurs}} (encore-ers) simply clapped and cried "{{Lang|fr|Bis! Bis!}}" to request encores.<ref name="EB1911" />

The practice spread to Italy (famously at La Scala, Milan), Vienna, London (Covent Garden) and New York City (the Metropolitan Opera). Claques could be used in a form of extortion: writers or singers were commonly{{quantify|date=August 2025}} contacted by a {{lang | fr | chef de claque}} before a debut and forced to pay a fee<ref> {{cite book |last1 = Everist |first1 = Mark |author-link1 = Mark Everist |date = 4 December 2002 |chapter = La férule sévère et souvent capricieuse – Control and Consumption |title = Music Drama at the Paris Odéon, 1824–1828 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=qhMGi156vGAC |location = Berkeley |publisher = University of California Press |pages = 129–130 |isbn = 9780520928909 |access-date = 21 August 2025 |quote = By the 1820s the claque, known also as the {{lang | fr | chevaliers de lustre}} or the {{lang | fr | romains}}, was a well-organised, fully professionalized, system that was as much in control of the destinies of soloists as it was of plays and music drama. [...] For a new work. or for the debut of an artist, the {{lang | fr | chef de claque}} would approach the playwright and demand a number of the free tickets the author had received from the administration. Some of these would be used to get the rest of the {{lang | fr | claque}} into the theater, and the rest would be sold outside the door; this, and the straightforward cash payments made by artists, was the way in which extortion generated income. If the authors and artists cooperated with the {{lang | fr | chef de claque}}, they could look forward to guaranteed applause throughout the premiere or debut; if not, the {{lang | fr | chevalier de lustre}} would ensure that no member of the audience would express their approval [...]. Such a freelance organization worked well until the moment when more than one {{lang | fr | chef de claque}} approached the authors or artists, as happened at the Théâtre-Français during the 1820s. }} </ref> or have their work booed.

Richard Wagner withdrew a staging of his opera {{Lang|de|Tannhäuser}} from the Parisian operatic repertory after the claque of the Jockey Club derisively interrupted its initial performances<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/wagnercompendium0000unse_y6f8 |title=The Wagner compendium : a guide to Wagner's life and music |publisher=Schirmer Books |year=1992 |ISBN=9780028713595 |editor1-last=Millington |editor1-first=Barry |location=New York |page=281 |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Grey | first = Thomas S. | year = 2013 | chapter = Tannhäuser, Paris scandal of 1861 | pages = 581–583 | editor1-last = Vazsonyi | editor-first = Nicholas | publisher = Cambridge University Press | location = Cambridge, England | ISBN = 9781107004252 | title = The Cambridge Wagner Encyclopedia}}</ref> in March 1861.

Later Arturo Toscanini and Gustav Mahler discouraged claques, as a part of the development of concert etiquette.

Although the practice mostly died out during the mid- to late-20th century, instances of actors paid to applaud at performances still occasionally appear, most famously with the Bolshoi Ballet.<ref> {{cite news | last= Barry | first= Ellen | title= Wild Applause, Secretly Choreographed | newspaper= The New York Times | date= 14 August 2013 | url= https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/18/arts/dance/designated-cheering-spectators-thrive-at-the-bolshoi-theater.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 |url-access= registration |url-status= live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130815152652/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/18/arts/dance/designated-cheering-spectators-thrive-at-the-bolshoi-theater.html | archive-date= 2013-08-15 |access-date= 22 May 2020 }} </ref>

==See also== {{Portal|France|Opera|Theatre}}

{{div col|colwidth=30em}} * Astroturfing * Cheerleading * Kakegoe * Laugh track * ōmukou (:ja:大向う) – case of Kabuki * Payola * Professional mourning * Shill * Social proof * Tifosi {{div col end}}

==Notes== {{Reflist}}

==References== {{Wiktionary}}

* ''The Oxford Dictionary of Opera'', by John Warrack and Ewan West (1992), 782 pages, {{ISBN|0-19-869164-5}}

{{Opera terms}}

Category:16th-century establishments in France Category:Entertainment occupations Category:Gestures of respect Category:Opera in France Category:Opera terminology Category:Theatre of France