er—chef de claque—and several individual claqueurs) had become an es-
tablished and persistent tradition throughout the world of opera. As
music historian Robert Sabin notes, “By 1830 the claque was a full-bloom
institution, collecting by day, applauding by night, all in the honest
open.... But it is altogether probable that neither Sauton, nor his ally
Porcher, had a notion of the extent to which their scheme of paid ap-
plause would be adopted and applied wherever opera is sung.”^15
As claquing grew and developed, its practitioners offered an array
of styles and strengths. In the same way that laugh-track producers can
hire individuals who excel in titters, chuckles, or belly laughs, the
claques spawned their own specialists—the pleureuse, chosen for her
ability to weep on cue; the bisseur, who called “bis” (repeat) and “encore”
in ecstatic tones; and in direct kinship with today’s laugh-track per-
former, the rieur, selected for the infectious quality of his laugh.
For our purposes, though, the most instructive parallel to modern
forms of canned response is the conspicuous character of the fakery.
No special need was seen to disguise or vary the claque, who often sat
in the same seats, performance after performance, year after year, led
by a chef de claque two decades into his position. Even the monetary
transactions were not hidden from the public. Indeed, one hundred
years after the birth of claquing, a reader of the London Musical Times
could scan the advertised rates of the Italian claqueurs. Whether in the
world of Rigoletto or Gilligan’s Island, then, audiences have been success-
fully manipulated by those who use social evidence, even when that
evidence has been openly falsified.
For applause on entrance, if a gentleman 25 lire
For applause on entrance, if a lady 15 lire
Ordinary applause during performance, each 10 lire
Insistent applause during performance, each 15 lire
Still more insistent applause 17 lire
For interruptions with “Bene!” or “Bravo!” 5 lire
For a “Bis” at any cost 50 lire
Wild enthusiasm—A special sum to be arrangedFIGURE 4-5
Advertised Rates of the Italian Claque
From “ordinary applause” to “wild enthusiasm,” claqueurs offered
their services in an audaciously public fashion—in this case, in aRobert B. Cialdini Ph.D / 119