command performance

American  

noun

1. a performance of a play, opera, ballet, or the like, given at the request of a sovereign or head of state.

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command performance British  

noun

1. a performance of a play, opera, etc, at the request of a ruler or of royalty

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command performance Idioms  

1. An occasion that one is obliged to attend, as in My boss's invitations to dinner are always a command performance. This term originally (late 1800s) denoted a theatrical or musical performance presented at the behest of a sovereign or head of state. By the 1930s it was also used figuratively for any more or less obligatory occasion or performance.

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Etymology

Origin of command performance

First recorded in 1895–1900

Example Sentences

Get a command performance out of Vidal, who rushed for 124 yards last week.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 19, 2025

“Lee Zeldin’s command performance, despite coming up a little short, and quality candidates who really worked tirelessly in their districts, produced a great win for us,” Rep.-elect Marc Molinaro said.

From Washington Times • Nov. 14, 2022

Even during a rote command performance, Morton can be droll and dry, noting that our heroine’s upbringing was “less Disney, more brothers Grimm” and that her gilded paternal bloodline included a dentist.

From New York Times • Nov. 13, 2022

They were chauffeured around London by the Prince of Wales himself, pre-abdication, after a command performance for Edward and his not-yet-wife Wallis Simpson.

From Washington Post • May 22, 2022

I grew tired of it and told her it could have been worse, that Maestro Frederic Chopin had once done the same thing at a command performance for the king and queen of Prussia.

From "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly

Related Words

• world premiere