| Ashton created Nursery Suite – his final ballet – in 1986, for a gala celebrating Queen Elizabeth II’s 60th birthday. Set to selected movements from Elgar’s 1931 Nursery Suite, the work was performed by students of The Royal Ballet School at the Royal Opera House, in the presence of the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and other members of the Royal Family. Ashton’s choreography focusses on the two royal sisters, Princess Elizabeth (‘Lilibet’) and Princess Margaret Rose—evoking their childhood personalities and foreshadowing their contrasting destinies. |
MUSIC
Edward Elgar (1 Aubade 3 Busy-ness 5 The Wagon Passes 7 Dreaming – Envoy [Coda] from Nursery Suite, 1931)
DANCERS
Lilybet: Zara Deakin; Margaret Rose: Susannah Jones; and four boys
FIRST PERFORMANCE
Royal Ballet School, in ‘Fanfare for Elizabeth’ Gala Performance, Royal Opera House, London, 21 April 1986
Copyright © 2004 by David Vaughan. ‘Work note’ © Frederick Ashton Foundation.
This listing is part of a chronology that was originally published in Vaughan’s Frederick Ashton and His Ballets (Alfred E Knopf 1976; 2nd ed., London: Dance Books, 1999) and includes new productions added since then, and up until 2007