Fanfare

What it contains

• Neoclassical Ballet — Ensemble of the orchestra · The ensemble sequence following the majordomo's spoken introduction — Small mixed-gender groups stand in for instrument families and move as coordinated ensemble units through the shape of Britten's variations, with no featured solo dancer - a plotless, music-driven structure typical of NYCB's neoclassical repertoire of the period. Source: "then proceeds to an ensemble performance with dancers representing different instruments, including three women as a piccolo and two flutes... There are no major solos in the ballet."

What is danced

The ballet opens with a spoken frame rather than dance: a majordomo stands onstage and reads aloud Britten's own explanatory text about the orchestra. The dance proper is an ensemble piece in which each instrument or instrument family is assigned a small group of dancers - three women for piccolo and two flutes, a woman for the oboe, a man and woman for the clarinets, two men for the bassoons, a man and woman for the violas, three women for the cellos, a man for the double bass, a woman for the harp, two men for the trumpets, four men for tuba and three trombones together, and three men for percussion. The article is explicit that 'there are no major solos in the ballet' - the choreographic interest is in how these small, instrument-specific groups move and combine as an ensemble, following the shape of Britten's variations on the Purcell theme rather than a narrative or a starring role.

Context

The work was created inside NYCB's plotless, music-driven repertory tradition associated with Balanchine, and the article records that Balanchine himself could not resist adding touches to Robbins's choreography during a rehearsal Robbins had asked him to lead - changes Robbins later reversed, a friction the two apparently joked about ('I fixed, but you changed') at every revival. It was commissioned as part of a coronation-night program that Lincoln Kirstein curated specifically to honor British choreographers, composers and designers, opening with an address by a British Army general and a performance of Walton's Orb and Sceptre, and including works by Frederick Ashton and a Swan Lake before Fanfare's premiere.

Staging history

NYCB has revived Fanfare only intermittently: it was absent from the repertory between 1978 and 1987, returned for the 2008 Jerome Robbins Celebration, then disappeared again until the Robbins centenary program in 2017/18. Robbins staged it abroad for the Royal Danish Ballet in 1956, and Pacific Northwest Ballet has performed it with minor changes; the School of American Ballet has also used it for its annual workshop performances. In 2020, during the pandemic shutdown, NYCB released a video excerpt of the ballet.

How to watch it

Attend to the mapping between musical family and stage grouping: the size, gender composition and grouping of each 'instrument' unit (three women for the piccolo and flutes, four men for tuba and trombones, and so on) is the choreographic idea itself, not decoration around it. Because there are no major solos, watch for how ensemble shape and entrances/exits track Britten's variation structure rather than looking for a featured dancer; the majordomo's spoken introduction is a framing device, not dance.

Structure

1. Majordomo's introduction
   A majordomo appears onstage and reads aloud Britten's own explanatory text from the score before any dancing begins.
2. Ensemble of the orchestra
   Small groups of dancers representing each instrument or instrument family (piccolo and flutes, oboe, clarinets, bassoons, violas, cellos, double bass, harp, trumpets, tuba and trombones, percussion) perform together, with no featured solos.

Structure read from an encyclopaedia article, not from a libretto or score we hold. Confirm against a programme before treating the numbering as authoritative.

Credits

• composer: Benjamin Britten

Questions