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Ballet encores vs opera encores?


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I was startled when the Bolshoi did their full-length Don Quixote at Segerstrom in Orange County in spring 2010. They took full bows after each act, with all the dancers who had been in that act, of the sort we usually see here only at the end of the entire ballet. Was that because many of those dancers would not be appearing in later acts? I remember counting up about 100 dancers listed in the program on that tour, so they didn't need to double up on roles as we see in smaller U.S. companies. Do any Russians know how that practice developed? Is this the standard for all their full-length ballets?

Was it possibly Opening Night in that venue? It could also be tradition. And sometimes there are characters in opera that do not reappear and they sometimes give them a bow, so they can go home if the opera has another 3-4 hours to go! LOL

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I was startled when the Bolshoi did their full-length Don Quixote at Segerstrom in Orange County in spring 2010. They took full bows after each act, with all the dancers who had been in that act, of the sort we usually see here only at the end of the entire ballet. Was that because many of those dancers would not be appearing in later acts? I remember counting up about 100 dancers listed in the program on that tour, so they didn't need to double up on roles as we see in smaller U.S. companies. Do any Russians know how that practice developed? Is this the standard for all their full-length ballets?

Was it possibly Opening Night in that venue? It could also be tradition. And sometimes there are characters in opera that do not reappear and they sometimes give them a bow, so they can go home if the opera has another 3-4 hours to go! LOL

Nope. They did this at both the Saturday matinee and evening performances, after opening on Thursday night. That's why I'm thinking that it's standard practice for the Bolshoi, and I'm curious about the rationale. Although most (all?) of the characters in Act I of DQ reappear in Act III, that might not always be the case.

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I was startled when the Bolshoi did their full-length Don Quixote at Segerstrom in Orange County in spring 2010. They took full bows after each act, with all the dancers who had been in that act, of the sort we usually see here only at the end of the entire ballet. Was that because many of those dancers would not be appearing in later acts? I remember counting up about 100 dancers listed in the program on that tour, so they didn't need to double up on roles as we see in smaller U.S. companies. Do any Russians know how that practice developed? Is this the standard for all their full-length ballets?

Was it possibly Opening Night in that venue? It could also be tradition. And sometimes there are characters in opera that do not reappear and they sometimes give them a bow, so they can go home if the opera has another 3-4 hours to go! LOL

Nope. They did this at both the Saturday matinee and evening performances, after opening on Thursday night. That's why I'm thinking that it's standard practice for the Bolshoi, and I'm curious about the rationale. Although most (all?) of the characters in Act I of DQ reappear in Act III, that might not always be the case.

Must be tradition at the Bolshoi then. I have noticed curtain calls after each act on videos I have seen from the Bolshoi.

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it seems that each type of artistic performance has its own etiquette.

In Ballet there's constant acknowledgment of audience applause after something's been done.

In Opera the singers just stand in their place without going down to the footlights to bow to

audience.

At concerts it's considered bad form to applause between movements.

. That is a great video of Barenboim's eyes coming out of their sockets at the very end of Tristan und Isolde when the audience starts to applaud before the final note.

I once read that Sir Thomas Beecham turned to the audience when they applauded after the first movement of a Beethovan symphony and scathingly said: for an encore we shall play the Second Movement!

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it seems that each type of artistic performance has its own etiquette.

In Ballet there's constant acknowledgment of audience applause after something's been done.

In Opera the singers just stand in their place without going down to the footlights to bow to

audience.

At concerts it's considered bad form to applause between movements.

. That is a great video of Barenboim's eyes coming out of their sockets at the very end of Tristan und Isolde when the audience starts to applaud before the final note.

I once read that Sir Thomas Beecham turned to the audience when they applauded after the first movement of a Beethovan symphony and scathingly said: for an encore we shall play the Second Movement!

That is great! LOL

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