The final performance on stage at the end of the opera. This is when singers look suitably pained or otherwise deeply moved, and, one at a time, put right hands on chests, while bowing the head stiffly and - in the case of ladies - slightly bending the knees. The audience meanwhile, cheers, claps and throws flowers. The curtain in the term “curtain call” refers, not to the main house tabs that drop at the end of the show, but to a curtain immediately up stage. Traditionally, this is flown into place to disguise the fact that the set is being removed by the stage crew during the prolonged applause. In this context, a “full stage call” is a cast bow taken in the full set, before this curtain is flown in. A “chorus call” is an occasion when the chorus is allowed to receive audience applause. An “Act call” is a curtain call taken at the end of an earlier Act, but this uniquely operatic habit is fast becoming unfashionable. The word “call” alludes to a stage manager calling the cast to the stage.
