| a performance of a play, opera, ballet, or the like, given at the request of a sovereign or head of state. |
| Main Entry: | command performance1 |
| Part of Speech: | n |
| Definition: | a presentation or performance given at the request of royalty |
| Main Entry: | command performance2 |
| Part of Speech: | n |
| Definition: | a performance one is required to give |
| Main Entry: | command performance3 |
| Part of Speech: | n |
| Definition: | a social occasion one is required to attend |
command performance
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.