lever de rideaun.
= curtain-raiser n. Also figurative.
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society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > the theatre or the stage > [noun] > a theatrical production > curtain-raiser
fore-piece1814
lever de rideau1860
curtain-raiser1886
1860 Players 1 107 As a lever de rideau it was favourably received.
1891 G. B. Shaw How to become Musical Critic (1960) 193 Signor Lago has produced a few miserably-mounted fragments of worn-out Italian operas by way of levers de rideau for Cavalleria.
1906 W. De Morgan Joseph Vance v. 38 The Man went up into ‘the Nursery’ to look at the bricks in the chimney... This was a mere lever-de-rideau—the principal stage business of the day being an examination of the Drains.
1970 Brewer's Dict. Phrase & Fable (ed. 12) 638/2 Lever de rideau, a short sketch, etc., performed on the stage before the main play begins.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1976; most recently modified version published online March 2019).
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n.1860