LL-L "Traditions" 2009.04.16 (04) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 16 April 2009 - Volume 04
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From: fredvanbrederode at home.nl
Subject: Standing ovations

This week the 47-year old lady, Susan Boyle, hit the world media after she
had a fabulous performance in the “Britain’s got talent”.

Her non congruent appearance together with her outstanding talent for
singing was more than stunning.

I just repeat what the news paper wrote about her. I did not even bother to
check YouTube and see it all with my own eyes.

What intrigued me was a particular part in all the comments on the event .
Let me give you an example. “Mail Online” stated it as follows:

“Her powerful rendition of the Les Miserable hit won her a standing ovation
from the crowd when she performed”

There’s no question about it. The lady performed outstandingly, the crowd
went berserk culminating in a standing ovation.

>From the article I take it that in the editor’s view a standing ovation is
something very special. Only rare occasions like Mrs Boyle’s performance
call for one.

This is not so in this country. In Dutch theatres standing ovations came to
be standard in the last 10 or so years. My wife and I are habitués  in local
and regional theatres. All the performances end with a standing ovation, no
exception. I hardly met with bad performers, but we came across quite a few
mediocre ones. Nevertheless a good round of applause  did not seem good
enough. In a few moments after the applause started one or two persons in
the audience stand up and more follow. Eventually I do so as well. With
everyone standing up and blocking the view it is no fun staying seated.

I am not sure when the habit of the obligatory standing ovation, regardless
of quality,  started.

Don’t get me wrong, an outstanding performance deserves one. After being
treated to a fascinating, incredible and surprisingly outperforming show, it
is pretty normal to jump up your feet. How could one expect to stay seated.

Susan Boyle’s performance definitely meets with the criteria.

Last week I went to the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. I expect Amsterdam, being
the country’s cultural capital, to take the lead in our theatrical habits. I
must say that we attended high standard performance. This may be the
explanation for the standing ovation that followed. I honestly had the idea
that an extra round of applause would suffice.

In theatres abroad I never experienced standing ovations. It was a long time
ago that I went to a theatre abroad. While in this country the situation
grew out of hand in my view, I wonder how  these habits evolved in other
places. Standing ovations may be the rule in all Dutch theatres. I don’t
even know if the rule also exists in neighbouring areas like Flanders.

Ron in more than one occasion stated that culture in a wider sense than just
languages fit fine in LL’s scope. Let us start a thread on the above issue.

Ik ben benieuwd naar jullie reacties.

Met vriendelijke groet,

Fred van Brederode

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Traditions

Hi, Fred! It's great to hear from you again.

Thanks for that thread. Cultural topics are most certainly encouraged within
our scope.

What I see is that extraordinary gestures are sometimes reduced to ordinary
ones. Standing ovations apparently are a good example of this. In the USA
you can see it during presidential addresses when certainly the members of
the president's own party feel obligated to stand while applauding after
every couple of sentences or so. Even applause itself started off as a
special gesture that was sparingly given, while nowadays people clap
politely even if they hate a performance (when in the past they would have
booed and would have thrown objects at the stage). But there are differences
between cultures, though international media exposure does its part to make
us all move toward acting alike.

As for Susan Boyle, I am sure you and I are not the only ones that relish
her success and the splash she has made with her first performance in the
contest. What it's really about is that the world loves an underdog turned
hero. A supposedly plain Jane, an unemployed no-spring-chicken,
never-been-kissed spinster who lives in semi-rural West Lothian, Scotland,
with her cat Pebbles, wowed all those that had made faces and had giggled
sarcastically when she said she was dreaming of becoming a professional
singer.

Even though there may be a bit too much to-do about her right now, I feel
that the message ("Don't judge a book by its cover") is coming across
clearly. Also, I welcome the slap in the faces of those media folks that
routinely discriminate against people on the basis of their looks and ages,
that make their living by dictating what sorts of persons we should find
attractive and worthy of respect.

Should any of our Lowlanders have been visiting a different planet while
this was going on, here are three video clips to fill you in:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn7So0NC74s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsaF5-moIvQ

I like that lass. Yes, she does have a "cheeky smile", and that's always a
good start as far as I am concerned.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA

•

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