Top hat top hat is a hard, black silk hat, with fur now often used. The acceptable colors of hats are much as they have traditionally been, with "white" hats (which are actually grey), a daytime racing color, worn at the less formal occasions demanding a top hat, such as Royal Ascot, or with a morning suit. In the U.S. top hats are worn widely in coaching, a driven horse discipline as well as for formal riding to hounds. The collapsible silk opera hat, or "crush hat", is still worn on occasions, and black in color if worn with evening wear as
Claque the jokes. "Pleureurs" (criers), generally women, feigned tears, by holding their handkerchiefs to their eyes. "Chatouilleurs" (ticklers) kept the audience in a good humor, while "bisseurs" (encore-ers) simply clapped and cried "Bis! Bis!" to request encores. The practice spread to Italy (famously at La Scala, Milan), Vienna, London (Covent Garden) and New York (the Metropolitan Opera). Claques were also used as a form of extortion, as singers were commonly contacted by the "chef de claque" before their debut and forced to pay a fee, in order not to get booed. The staging of the opera "Tannhäuser" was withdrawn by its