I love good theater, good art, and I appreciate good work, but I save the standing ovations for the moments and the artists who really Wow me. That's what a standing ovation is supposed to be. It's not your basic applause, it's not your roaring applause, it's roaring applause PLUS standing.
I was thinking about this while watching one of the operas I do marketing for. There are incredible singers in it, but a standing O for the messenger? He barely sings 16 measures, and if he hadn't come out on stage for a bow, I wouldn't have noticed.
It's like school grades, which competitive schools like mine have to think about all the time whether we want to or not. Compared to a scale of your basic types of applause: B is above average; not incredible, more than polite. B+: Consider it a roaring applause. A-: With some hoots and hollers (or bravos, for the opera types). A: Standing O, steady, well-deserved applause. A+: Standing O, roaring applause with perhaps some hoots, hollers, and bravos.
I'm not saying there isn't good work out there, but if we give standing ovations to everything, doesn't that diminish the meaning of the standing O? Maybe I'm just a bitter old lady already, or maybe I'm just plain wrong, but I hate having to stand just because I can't even see who's coming on stage next.
Overusing Ovations
By kfed - Posted on July 21st, 2007
I for one really hate when people applaud at the end of every movie. I always think to myself "Was that performance in that movie really that great? Was there any real depth or humanity or truth or emotion? Or was it just a bunch of special effects and cheezy sex scenes?" I really never applaud for a movie unless I am blown away by it. I just dont like to feel obligated to applaud because some other people do.
I think this is very similar to your point although in a different medium of acting. I really wish there was a way of making the audience more intelligent but there isnt. Back when I performed in a lot of bands I always thought "Man we sounded like shit, why are they applauding so loud?" haha I guess its just a fact of life for performers. As I got more experienced I found that I didnt even pay attention to the crowd response and just did my best and left. Performing is a tricky business because your success is in the hands of a finicky audience.
"Its all very well in practice but it will never work in theory."
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/daimler
It's true, I really hate to feel peer pressured into applauding when I don't want to.
I remember absolutely terrible high school choir or band concerts that I performed in, and there was this tradition of the older choirs giving the younger choirs standing ovations at the end of their set which I absolutely hated. I mean, I could barely stand to listen to them, let alone stand to applaud them.
At the same time, I've seen some truly magnificent performances for which no one but me stood. Not sure why no one felt the same way- maybe the script was too hard for the audience to get past to see how well done it was?
Basically, I hate audiences. Even when they're being nice, the "bravos" that parents shout because they can't clap with the camcorder in their hand is no substitute for applause.