Concerning the practice of giving flowers/bouquet
-richard
Often after a classical (solo) piece members of the audience will rush
up and give flowers to the performer. Is this practice usually
restricted between student/teacher? Or can anyone or should anyone
'rush' up and hand the performer flowers? What if two performers are
playing back to back, are flowers given after each performance or
after the two performers are both done? Just what is the etiquette if
any in flower giving?
Thanks,
CP
EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)
I think it varies, to some extent. If it's a really formal concert,
usually the flowers are handed in to someone backstage, and ushers or
house personnel present them to the artist on stage. However, I've been
at concerts where members of the audience walked up to the stage and
handed bouquets to the artist over the footlights, and of course at
operas, especially in Europe, people throw flowers onto the stage from
the audence. (Usually after the final curtain, but that's been known to
vary, too.)
>
> Thanks,
> CP
Pan
wrote:
>Hello, I am new to concert going.
>Often after a classical (solo) piece members of the audience will rush
>up and give flowers to the performer. Is this practice usually
>restricted between student/teacher?
No. Anyone who knows the artist well can bring a bouquet.
>Or can anyone or should anyone
>'rush' up and hand the performer flowers?
Normally, it's someone the artist knows well: A lover, relative, close
friend, devoted student, etc.
> What if two performers are
>playing back to back, are flowers given after each performance or
>after the two performers are both done?
The flowers would have to be given to the performer while s/he's on
stage, so it doesn't make sense to wait until after s/he's gone.
> Just what is the etiquette if
>any in flower giving?
Some people think that giving flowers to someone who isn't the
most-featured performer on a program shows up the most-featured
performer, but I think that's silly. Giving flowers is nice. The only
thing I would question would be giving flowers to the accompanist if
the soloist isn't given any, or something like that. Also, giving
flowers to section players in an orchestra is not done.
Michael
EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)
Pan wrote:
>
> On 21 Jun 2003 21:50:34 -0700, nuncdi...@aaahawk.com (-richard)
> wrote:
>
> >Hello, I am new to concert going.
> >Often after a classical (solo) piece members of the audience will rush
> >up and give flowers to the performer. Is this practice usually
> >restricted between student/teacher?
>
> No. Anyone who knows the artist well can bring a bouquet.
What does "knowing the artist" have to do with it? ("Admire", yes - but
that's not the same thing as knowing him/her personally.)
>
> >Or can anyone or should anyone
> >'rush' up and hand the performer flowers?
>
> Normally, it's someone the artist knows well: A lover, relative, close
> friend, devoted student, etc.
Assuming it's a concert situation, that "etc," may also include the
artist's management, the concert agency under whose auspices the
performance takes place, the management of the hall.... (And in the case
of "hunks" like Hvorostovsky, who seem to inspire feminine admiration
that has nothing to do with their stature as artists, "smitten" young
females who have an active fantasy life, but have never met the man
himself!) SFAIK when it comes to throwing flowers onto the stage from
the audience, there may or may not be anything by which to identify the
donor - people do it in appreciation of the artist, whther they are
personally acquainted or not.
Pan
<evg...@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>
>Pan wrote:
>>
>> On 21 Jun 2003 21:50:34 -0700, nuncdi...@aaahawk.com (-richard)
>> wrote:
>>
>> >Hello, I am new to concert going.
>> >Often after a classical (solo) piece members of the audience will rush
>> >up and give flowers to the performer. Is this practice usually
>> >restricted between student/teacher?
>>
>> No. Anyone who knows the artist well can bring a bouquet.
>
>What does "knowing the artist" have to do with it? ("Admire", yes - but
>that's not the same thing as knowing him/her personally.)
My experience.
I'd find it odd to be given a bouquet by someone I didn't know, but if
she was a beautiful woman, I'd be interested in finding out her name
and speaking with her. :-)
>> >Or can anyone or should anyone
>> >'rush' up and hand the performer flowers?
>>
>> Normally, it's someone the artist knows well: A lover, relative, close
>> friend, devoted student, etc.
>
>Assuming it's a concert situation, that "etc," may also include the
>artist's management, the concert agency under whose auspices the
>performance takes place, the management of the hall.... (And in the case
>of "hunks" like Hvorostovsky, who seem to inspire feminine admiration
>that has nothing to do with their stature as artists, "smitten" young
>females who have an active fantasy life, but have never met the man
>himself!) SFAIK when it comes to throwing flowers onto the stage from
>the audience, there may or may not be anything by which to identify the
>donor - people do it in appreciation of the artist, whther they are
>personally acquainted or not.
Opera is a different situation from recitals, so if the original
poster was talking about an opera or a concert of opera arias and
such-like by famous divas/divos, you have a particularly good point. I
don't remember the last time I saw a bouquet _thrown at_ an
instrumentalist, but your experience may vary.
Michael
EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)
Pan wrote:
>
> On Sun, 22 Jun 2003 13:20:39 -0700, "EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)"
> <evg...@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> > Pan wrote:
> >> No. Anyone who knows the artist well can bring a bouquet.
> >
> >What does "knowing the artist" have to do with it? ("Admire", yes - but
> >that's not the same thing as knowing him/her personally.)
>
> My experience.
>
> I'd find it odd to be given a bouquet by someone I didn't know, but if
> she was a beautiful woman, I'd be interested in finding out her name
> and speaking with her. :-)
I recall a concert here in L.A. - I don't remember the details, but it
was a Russian group, or conductor, or whatever, with a great many
Russian-Americans in the audience. After the performance, several
people from the audience came forward to hand bouquets over the
footlights. If the donors are people who know the artist, they are
ordinarily carried onstage by one of the backstage crew, and delivered
to the artists with a bit more ceremony. (At least, here in the U.S. -
I've not attended any recitals in Europe, only operas.)
> >> Normally, it's someone the artist knows well: A lover, relative, close
> >> friend, devoted student, etc.
> >
> >Assuming it's a concert situation, that "etc," may also include the
> >artist's management, the concert agency under whose auspices the
> >performance takes place, the management of the hall.... (And in the case
> >of "hunks" like Hvorostovsky, who seem to inspire feminine admiration
> >that has nothing to do with their stature as artists, "smitten" young
> >females who have an active fantasy life, but have never met the man
> >himself!) SFAIK when it comes to throwing flowers onto the stage from
> >the audience, there may or may not be anything by which to identify the
> >donor - people do it in appreciation of the artist, whther they are
> >personally acquainted or not.
>
> Opera is a different situation from recitals, so if the original
> poster was talking about an opera or a concert of opera arias and
> such-like by famous divas/divos, you have a particularly good point. I
> don't remember the last time I saw a bouquet _thrown at_ an
> instrumentalist, but your experience may vary.
I agree, I've only seen it at opera performances (that's why I qualified
my original statement with "opera").
Pan
<evg...@earthlink.net> wrote:
>I recall a concert here in L.A. - I don't remember the details, but it
>was a Russian group, or conductor, or whatever, with a great many
>Russian-Americans in the audience. After the performance, several
>people from the audience came forward to hand bouquets over the
>footlights. If the donors are people who know the artist, they are
>ordinarily carried onstage by one of the backstage crew, and delivered
>to the artists with a bit more ceremony. (At least, here in the U.S. -
>I've not attended any recitals in Europe, only operas.)
That must depend on the venue. At places like the Weill Recital Hall
at Carnegie Hall, the audience member brings the flowers up
himself/herself, in my experience of concert-going there. I would
guess that perhaps the bigger the venue and the bigger the performing
group, the more likely it is that a member of the crew will take care
of the flowers. Is that your experience?
Michael
davyd
news:56c3a3e8.03062...@posting.google.com...
I've never seen a male artist given flowers. And I've never seen a female
artist NOT given flowers. Sometimes she gets more than she can carry, and
drops them all over everywhere.
Ptbrady
>> up and give flowers to the performer.
I knew a man that, as a starving student at New York University, worked
evenings as an usher for the ballet. It was his job to present flowers to the
ballerinas at the end of the program. He said that he was amused that when he
got close to the dancers, how sweaty and filthy they were after an evening of
hard dancing, often having moved directly against the floor. He said that the
audience was too far away to notice this, especially the way the lighting was
set up. Pete
Ken Moore
writes
>I've never seen a male artist given flowers.
Standard practice in the Netherlands and (I believe) some other European
countries for all soloists to get flowers.
> And I've never seen a female
>artist NOT given flowers. Sometimes she gets more than she can carry, and
>drops them all over everywhere.
If the bouquet is loose, some soloists will give single flowers to the
conductor or the leader (= concertmaster).
--
Ken Moore
K.C....@reading.ac.uk
pg composition student, University of Reading
EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)
How many recitals or operas have you attended? And where? It's
certainly common enough practice in Europe - and not all that uncommon
in large U.S. cities. Of course, in opera, bouquets are usually thrown
onto the stage from the upper seating areas (boxes, loges, etc.), but
they are clearly aimed toward the male as well as the female singers.
(IMO, only in the rather homophobic USA are flowers somehow considered
"unmasculine", but then we Americans have a lot of strange hang-ups.)
EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)
Singing opera isn't all that easy work, either - that's why modern opera
houses provide showers in the performers' dressing rooms! (And ballet
is more "athletic" than a great many sports.)
Trudi Marrapodi
> davyd wrote:
[snip]
> > I've never seen a male artist given flowers. And I've never seen a female
> > artist NOT given flowers. Sometimes she gets more than she can carry, and
> > drops them all over everywhere.
>
> How many recitals or operas have you attended? And where? It's
> certainly common enough practice in Europe - and not all that uncommon
> in large U.S. cities. Of course, in opera, bouquets are usually thrown
> onto the stage from the upper seating areas (boxes, loges, etc.), but
> they are clearly aimed toward the male as well as the female singers.
> (IMO, only in the rather homophobic USA are flowers somehow considered
> "unmasculine", but then we Americans have a lot of strange hang-ups.)
Same thing happens in figure skating. The men are just as likely to get
flowers thrown at them after competing as the women. Yet the figure
skating association in the U.S. will no longer present men with bouquets
on the podium, even though every other country does it, because it's
afraid of turning young boys off skating. Sheesh. I noticed the flowers
male skiers and speed skaters and so on get at the Olympics when they
stand on the podium don't seem to do anything to damage their masculinity.
--
Trudi
"Just like Pagliacci did..."--Smokey Robinson
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