Fanfare is a one-act ballet choreographed by Jerome Robbins to Benjamin Britten's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, in celebration of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.
[1] The ballet starts with a majordomo on stage reading Britten's explanatory text from the score, then proceeds to an ensemble performance with dancers representing different instruments,[2] including three women as a piccolo and two flutes, a woman as the oboe, a man and a woman as the clarinets, two men as the bassoons, a man and a woman as the violas,[3] three women as the cellos, a man as the double bass, a woman as the harp,[4] two men as trumpets, four men as a tuba and three trombones[5] and three men as the percussion instruments.
[1] According to Deborah Jowitt's biography of Jerome Robbins, it is believed that George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein, both New York City Ballet co-founders and Anglophiles, requested Robbins to create a new ballet on the occasion of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.
[4][8] The program on which Fanfare had its premiere, which was also the day of the coronation, was curated by Kirstein to honor British choreographers, composers and designers, though Robbins was born in Manhattan.
Following performances of two ballets by choreographer Frederick Ashton and Swan Lake, Fanfare had its premiere.