''L'éventail de Jeanne'' (''Jean's Fan'') is a children's

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

choreographed in 1927 by Alice Bourgat and Yvonne Franck. The music is a collaborative work by ten French composers, each of whom contributed a stylised dance in classic form: # Maurice Ravel (''Fanfare'') #

Pierre-Octave Ferroud Pierre-Octave Calixte Ferroud (6 January 1900 – 17 August 1936)K.S. (2003). was a French composer of classical music. Life Ferroud was born in Chasselay, Rhône, near Lyon. He went to Lyon, to Strasbourg (for military service from 1920-2) ...

(''Marche'') #

Jacques Ibert Jacques François Antoine Marie Ibert (15 August 1890 – 5 February 1962) was a French composer of classical music. Having studied music from an early age, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire and won its top prize, the Prix de Rome at his firs ...

(''Valse'') #

Alexis Roland-Manuel Alexis Roland-Manuel (22 March 18911 November 1966) was a French composer and critic, remembered mainly for his criticism. Biography He was born Roland Alexis Manuel Lévy in Paris, to a family of Belgian and Jewish origins. He studied composi ...

(''Canarie'') #

Marcel Delannoy Marcel-François-Georges Delannoy (9 July 1898 – 14 September 1962) was a French composer and critic.Hoérrée A. Marcel Delannoy. In: ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera.'' Macmillan, London and New York, 1997. He wrote operas, ballets, orchest ...

(''Bourrée'') # Albert Roussel (''Sarabande'') #

Darius Milhaud Darius Milhaud (; 4 September 1892 – 22 June 1974) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as ''The Group of Six''—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions ...

(''Polka'') # Francis Poulenc (''Pastourelle'') #

Georges Auric Georges Auric (; 15 February 1899 – 23 July 1983) was a French composer, born in Lodève, Hérault, France. He was considered one of ''Les Six'', a group of artists informally associated with Jean Cocteau and Erik Satie. Before he turned 20 he ...

(''Rondeau'') #

Florent Schmitt Florent Schmitt (; 28 September 187017 August 1958) was a French composer. He was part of the group known as Les Apaches. His most famous pieces are ''La tragédie de Salome'' and ''Psaume XLVII'' (Psalm 47). He has been described as "one of th ...

(Finale: ''Kermesse-Valse'') "Jeanne" refers to a Parisian hostess and patroness of the arts, Jeanne Dubost, who ran a children’s ballet school. In the spring of 1927 she presented ten of her composer friends with leaves from her fan, asking each of them to write a little dance for her pupils. The children were dressed in fairytale costumes and the décor was enlivened by a set designed with mirrors. It was produced in private at Jeanne Dubost’s Paris salon on 16 June 1927, with Maurice Ravel playing a piano transcription of the music. It had its public premiere at the Paris Opera on 4 March 1929, with the ten-year-old

Tamara Toumanova Tamara Toumanova ( ka, თამარა თუმანოვა; 2 March 1919 – 29 May 1996) was a Georgian-American prima ballerina and actress. A child of exiles in Paris after the Russian Revolution of 1917, she made her debut at the ag ...

dancing the lead role. This was the first performance of Darius Milhaud's music there and he was so annoyed to debut with a trifling work that he boycotted the performance. Excerpts have been recorded, particularly Ravel’s ''Fanfare'' and Poulenc’s ''Pastourelle''. The first complete recording was made in 1984 by the Philharmonia Orchestra led by

Geoffrey Simon Geoffrey Philip Simon (born 3 July 1946) is an Australian conductor resident in London. Recordings Geoffrey Simon was born on 3 July 1946 in Adelaide. He was a student of Herbert von Karajan, Rudolf Kempe, Hans Swarowsky and Igor Markevitch, ...

References

* Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed.
What’s What in Titles of Classical Music – and Beyond

Notes

External links

Video - Darius Milhaud - ''L'éventail de Jeanne'' (30:00).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eventail De Jeanne, L' Ballets by Maurice Ravel Ballets by Francis Poulenc Ballets by Jacques Ibert Ballets by Darius Milhaud Ballets by Albert Roussel Ballets by Florent Schmitt Ballets by Georges Auric Ballets by Alice Bourgat Ballets by Yvonne Franck 1927 ballet premieres 1927 compositions Collaborations in classical music