Entertainment
Solving a concert mystery: Why do so many acts insist on the ritual of the ‘encore’? – National | Globalnews.ca
The answer is rooted in technology — or rather, the lack of it.
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The genesis of the encore goes back to at least the 18th century, long before anyone could summon up music on demand. Without recorded music, the only way anyone could hear their favourite music was to wait for an opportunity to go someplace where it would be performed. Once the concert was over, it was over — unless the audience decided to hit the 1700s version of the “repeat” button.
The crowd yelled “Encore!” — French for “again.” In Italy, the cry was “Ancora!” These were demands by the audience (and more importantly, the performer’s wealthy patrons) to hear the most popular songs or portions of, say, an opera, one more time. And back then, these exhortations didn’t just happen at the end of the show. Shouts of “encore/ancora” (and alternately “une autre,” “un rappel,” “bis,” and “un’altra volta”) erupted several times during a performance in hopes of encouraging the orchestra to play a popular part of a piece again right then and there.
An example would be Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro. When it premiered at the Burgtheater in Vienna, the audience, including Emperor József II of Austria, one of Wolfie’s biggest fans, loved it so much that the orchestra was obliged to play certain portions and movements again and again and again. By the time everyone went home, the mid-performance and end-of-the-night encores — five the first night — had extended the opera to twice its intended length.
Not everyone was cool with this, however. At one point, European opera houses banned encores, saying that they were too disruptive. Even fanboy Emperor József got tired of the interruptions and less than 10 days after Figaro was first performed (and two days after a performance required seven encores), he issued a ruling that encores needed to be limited.
“To prevent the excessive duration of operas, without however prejudicing the fame often sought by opera singers from the repetition of vocal pieces,” he declared, “I deem the enclosed notice to the public (that no piece for more than a single voice is to be repeated) to be the most reasonable expedient. You will therefore cause some posters to this effect to be printed.”
Eventually, Austria, Italy, and Germany issued outright bans on shouts for encores, something that eventually extended to New World establishments like the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
Some actually feared that such unruly behaviour would lead to disorder. They had a point, too. In 1887, a member of the audience was so annoyed that Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini refused to replay the tenor aria Cielo e mar from the opera Gioconda. A soldier in the audience then called him “arrogant” to which Toscanini replied, “You’re not right, you dog.” Honour insulted, Toscanini was challenged to a duel. It never happened.
But audiences insisted. While encores disappeared from the more prestigious venues, the practice continued where the working class gathered to hear less serious music. Over time, shouting for an encore was derided as uncouth and rude by the moneyed class. By 1900, the only places where one could enjoy an encore were music halls and vaudeville theatres. If one of the acts sang a hot song of the day — perhaps the latest hit from New York’s Tin Pan Alley — he/she might be spontaneously called upon to sing it again and again until the audience was satiated. Song pluggers — people hired by music publishers to promote freshly written pop songs — loved when this happened because it inevitably meant an increase in sales of sheet music for that song.
The tradition of encores got a big boost from Broadway. Plays and musicals that were well-received often saw the audience call the actors and singers back onstage to take an extra bow, hoping to tease out the high of the performance just a little bit longer. By the late 1940s, such callbacks were not just common but widely expected.
From there, the tradition bled over into the nascent world of rock’n’roll. Crowds clamoured for Elvis to keep going but he refused to do encores. Horace Hogan, the promoter of an Elvis show at the Louisiana State Fair on Dec. 15, 1956, needed to disperse an ecstatic crowd so he became the first to utter the now-famous phrase, “Elvis has left the building.”
When they became superstars, The Beatles refused to play the encore game as well. Then again, encores were impossible. Audiences were so cray that once they played their set, they were whisked away in a waiting car.
Eventually, though, the idea of encores became entrenched with many acts. Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, and perhaps most of all, Bruce Springsteen, were only happy to play this game of hide-and-seek with the audience, even after playing for two hours or more. The Cure has been known to leave the stage and return up to five times. There’s documentation that Prince would play as many as seven encores. Bob Marley sometimes divided shows in half, leaving the stage about an hour into the performance only to come back on to play for another hour.
Yes, in some cases, it’s an artist’s ego that will drive multiple encores as they search for extra validation. Other times, it’s all part of the show. After a long set, a band might depart the stage for a quick break (water, oxygen, perhaps a few lines of cocaine) while the crowd buzzes about what big songs haven’t been played yet. The band then returns to play a couple of hits so that the evening ends on the highest note possible.
Note, too, that many encore performances come with special lighting cues and effects, making it plain that their return was always part of the plan. Both the artist and the audience is complicit in the charade, but few people seem to mind.
Not everyone, though. Elvis Costello used to have his sound guy blare loud music over the PA once he left the stage as a signal that it was time for everyone to leave. The message is clear: “You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here. Or maybe you can, but I’m gone.”
Emperor József would no doubt approve.
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Alan Cross is a broadcaster with Q107 and 102.1 the Edge and a commentator for Global News.
Subscribe to Alan’s Ongoing History of New Music Podcast now on Apple Podcast or Google Play
Entertainment
Jonathan Majors, Marvel and ‘Creed III’ actor, arrested on assault charge in New York – National | Globalnews.ca
New York City police said that Majors, star of the recently released Creed III and Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, was involved in a domestic dispute with a 30-year-old woman. Police responded around 11 a.m. Saturday to a 911 call inside an apartment in the Manhattan neighborhood of Chelsea.
“The victim informed police she was assaulted,” a spokesperson for the NYPD said in a statement. “Officers placed the 33-year-old male into custody without incident. The victim sustained minor injuries to her head and neck and was removed to an area hospital in stable condition.”
A representative for Majors denied any wrongdoing by the actor.
“He has done nothing wrong,” the representative said in an email to the AP on Saturday. “We look forward to clearing his name and clearing this up.”
On Sunday, a lawyer for Majors, Priya Chaudhry, came out more forcefully, saying Majors “is provably the victim of an altercation with a woman he knows” and blamed the incident on the woman having “an emotional crisis.”
Chaudhry said there was evidence clearing Majors, including “video footage from the vehicle where this episode took place, witness testimony from the driver and others who both saw and heard the episode, and most importantly, two written statements from the woman recanting these allegations.”
An email seeking additional comment from the NYPD based on Chaudhry’s assertions was not immediately returned Sunday.
Majors was arraigned Sunday on a complaint involving misdemeanour charges for assault and aggravated harassment, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said. A judge ordered Majors released on his own recognizance on Saturday night with a limited order of protection. He was scheduled to appear in court on May 8.
In the meantime, the U.S. Army suspended its TV ad campaign featuring Majors that was intended to target younger audiences. The Army Enterprise Marketing Office said in a statement Sunday that the U.S. Army is “deeply concerned by the allegations surrounding his arrest.”
“While Mr. Majors is innocent until proven guilty, prudence dictates that we pull our ads until the investigation into these allegations is complete,” the office said in a statement.
Majors is one of the fastest rising stars in Hollywood. After breaking through in 2019′s The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Majors has starred in Da 5 Bloods, The Harder They Fall and last year’s Devotion. He also stars in the recent Sundance Film Festival entry Magazine Dreams, which Searchlight Pictures is to release in December.
© 2023 The Canadian Press
Entertainment
Jeremy Renner posts video update on treadmill after snowplow injury – National | Globalnews.ca
The update, shared to Renner’s social media accounts, comes nearly three months after the actor was severely injured in a snowplow accident on Jan. 1, 2023.
“I now have to find OTHER things to occupy my time so my body can recover from my will,” Renner, 52, wrote on Twitter. He added the hashtags “#mindful #intended #recovery.”
In the 15-second clip, Renner is seen walking on a high-tech treadmill. He explains to another man next to him that the machine allows him to walk on “only 40 per cent of my weight.” He said the treadmill is similar to walking with a cane.
On his Instagram story, Renner shared the same video with the same caption.
Renner’s snowplow accident left the actor with more than 30 broken bones after he was crushed by a seven-ton PistenBully snowcat. He sustained “blunt chest trauma and orthopedic injuries” and underwent multiple surgeries.
At the time of the accident, Renner was trying to prevent a family member from being hit by the snowplow. Though the family member was saved from injury, Renner was pulled under the vehicle and crushed.
Last week, Renner shared a photo of the PistenBully snowcat, which had previously been in police custody, returning to his Reno, Nev., home.
“She’s finally making her way home!” Renner wrote next to a prayer hand emoji.
Renner, who plays the sharpshooting Marvel superhero Hawkeye, currently stars in the Paramount+ series Mayor of Kingstown.
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
Entertainment
Man suing Gwyneth Paltrow takes stand at ski crash trial: ‘I’m living another life now’ – National | Globalnews.ca
Paltrow, 50, has been accused of causing serious injury to Terry Sanderson after she allegedly collided with him while skiing at Deer Valley Resort in Park City, Utah.
Sanderson, 76, alleged Paltrow skied into him, “knocking him down hard, knocking him out.” He claimed the collision caused “permanent traumatic brain injury, 4 broken ribs, pain, suffering, loss of enjoyment of life.”
He maintains that Paltrow left him collapsed on the slope and skied away. He is suing Paltrow for more than US$300,000.
Paltrow denies any responsibility for the crash and is countersuing for $1 and lawyers’ fees. She claims Sanderson is the one who hit her and is now suing to “exploit her celebrity and wealth.”
Before calling Sanderson on Monday, his lawyer first recalled Craig Ramon, the sole eyewitness to the ski crash, to testify again. Ramon was shown several messages he sent shortly after the ski collision, which claimed he saw Sanderson injured by Paltrow.
Sanderson next took the stand. He said prior to the accident he was an “advanced-intermediate” skier who usually hit the slopes two or three times a week.
He said recounting the accident is “hard” for him. Sanderson testified he heard a “bloodcurdling scream” before he was hit in the back by another person on skis, presumably Paltrow. He said the person’s ski poles hit beneath his shoulder blades and sent him “flying.”
Sanderson said he fell to the ground and briefly “blacked out.” When he came to, Sanderson testified he could not move but knew there was a man shouting at him. The unknown man, according to Sanderson, was trying to “bully” him into believing he’d hurt someone in the accident.
Sanderson testified that he only learned it was Paltrow who had allegedly hit him after he was helped down the slope and received medical attention.
“I’m living another life now,” Sanderson said, referring to the lasting injuries he claimed to have sustained from the accident. He testified that he cannot ski anymore.
Sanderson said he gets easily lost and has had “difficult” relationships with his family since the ski collision. He became emotional on the stand, recounting how his daughters have reacted to alleged changes in his personality caused by brain trauma.
He said the accident has made him a “self-imposed recluse” and caused him to lose his “spark” for life.
Upon cross-examination, Paltrow’s lawyer, Stephen Owens, insisted there were several inconsistencies between Sanderson’s testimony and an earlier deposition. One such inconsistency Owens pointed out was the amount of time Sanderson claimed to be unconscious after the collision, with varying time frames in the deposition, his testimony and various medical records.
After Sanderson’s testimony, Paltrow’s lawyers are expected to call on her two children, 16-year-old Moses and 18-year-old Apple — who were present on the day of the incident — along with a ski instructor.
On Friday afternoon, Paltrow told a lawyer from Sanderson’s team that she “was not engaging in any risky behaviour” on the day of the crash, saying she was skiing with her two kids as well as with Brad Falchuk — her boyfriend at the time, now her husband — and his two kids.
The group was taking ski lessons on a green run, considered to be the easiest of runs on a ski hill, at the time, when she said she felt a pair of skis come between her skis, spreading her legs apart, and felt a “large body” hit her from behind.
“There was a body pressing against me and there was a very strange grunting noise,” she testified of the moment of the collision. “My brain was trying to make sense of what was happening. I thought, ‘Am I… is this a practical joke? Is someone, like, doing something perverted?’ This is really, really strange,” she said in her testimony, adding that she “froze” while trying to make sense of what was happening.
The pair skied down the hill for a short period, before “someone’s ski caught an edge,” Paltrow testifed, and they collapsed, with Paltrow landing on top of Sanderson, their skis entwined.
“He struck me in the back, yes, that’s exactly what happened,” Paltrow said, as the lawyer read back a portion of her description of the events from a deposition.
Gwyneth Paltrow enters the courtroom for her trial on March 24, 2023, in Park City, Utah.
Rick Bowmer / Pool / Getty Images
Paltrow said she waited for Sanderson to stand up – “long enough for him to say that he was OK” – before she skied away, adding that she did not ask about his condition any further and did not know the extent of his injuries at the time.
“I think you have to keep in mind when you’re the victim of a crash, right, your psychology is not necessarily thinking about the person who perpetrated it,” Paltrow testified.
During her testimony, Paltrow said she was left with an “overstretched” right knee and back pain after Sanderson collided with her from behind. In a since-viral clip, Paltrow testified she “lost half a day of skiing” as a result of her alleged injuries. Her lawyers entered the US$8,980 daily ski trip receipt into evidence on Friday, noting the amount paid for she and her two children to use the luxury slopes.
Paltrow said she feels empathy for Sanderson, but said she did not give him brain injuries that showed up on an MRI he received in 2016.
“I feel very sorry for him. It seems like he’s had a very difficult life, but I did not cause the accident so I cannot be at fault for anything that subsequently happened to him,” she testified.
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