by Stephen Carney

Created on: January 13, 2009

Indeed, standing ovations garner a well-used response and reaction from many audiences across many genres of entertainment. Whether one is attending their child's debut drama performance in their high school play or closing night of "Wicked" on Broadway, it appears that ticket-buyers must state their opinion of the power of a performance with a simple rising to their feet. Perhaps sitting for three to four hours didn't factor into this decision and audience members could have sat for another two to three hours with no need to stand on their feet to applaud. It is evident that the resonance ability of the hall catching the chattering of thousands of hands slapping together, in addition to the common sense of sound most human beings possess, is enough to justify the comfort of a well-cushioned seat. This ticket buyer spent over forty hours running around during the work week in order to pay for the ticket, he or she deserves a three to four hour rest with visual and auditory stimulants.

I have performed in a variety of settings for twenty-one years, ranging from amateur to professional, "B" opera houses, and community theater. In that wealth of experience the performer can understand that a standing ovation rarely indicates the quality of a performance in the final few minutes of the show! Rather, it is evident that throughout the entirety of the performance that the audience was rather impressed with the its quality, power, and expression that it was necessary to allow a supposed "thrust" of energy to an even higher apex of elation, if the clapping and shouting did not do the job. In essence, one doesn't usually find an overwhelming response of standing and cheering at the end of a performance when most of the audience slept for the first three hours of the show.

In a fairly recent performance I attended at the Metropolitan Opera the ovations at the end of the performance resembled more a Sunday at Mass rather than "Aida," by Giuseppe Verdi. It was my assumption that after peering to nearby audience members to view their rolling eyes after the third time they were required to rise to their feet, obviously mentally willing that no lunatic at orchestra level jump to their feet for the fifth time thereby requiring all to do so, that it wasn't a popular indication of performance satisfaction. In the end, a particular word was created in order to thwart the necessity of needing to rise before painstakingly forcing dead limbs to awake from their slumber. That word is

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