Letter: The calculated applause for the Los Olivos sewer pipeline

Letter: The calculated applause for the Los Olivos sewer pipeline

Michelle de Werd is right to be troubled by the applause at the Los Olivos Community Services District meeting (“Opposing the Los Olivos sewer pipeline,” July 17), and wrong about exactly one word: “silly.” I conduct orchestras for a living, and applause is the part of an evening I understand best. It is rarely as spontaneous as audiences believe. Nineteenth-century opera houses employed a professional claque—men paid by the seat, with specialis…