The first performance of the ballet La Boutique Fantasque was presented by Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes at the Alhambra Theatre in London on June 5, 1919. Ottorino Respighi's musical adaptation of a handful of "forgotten" piano pieces by Gioacchino Rossini combined with Leonide Massine's choreography and Andre Derain's costumes/scenery was wildly successful with the public and the critics. A military band arrangement of selected movements from the ballet was produced by Daniel Godfrey three years after the premiere of the ballet and was then quickly adapted for American bands by Erik Leidzen. Only a conductor's condensed score of this arrangement was published with the wind band parts in 1922 by J. & W. Chester, Ltd.
This Full Score Edition is the first time that a complete full score of the wind band version of La Boutique Fantasque has been made available to conductors. In the process of creating the full score over 600 inconsistencies were corrected in the individual parts, convenient rehearsal marks were added, the percussion writing was updated to include more of the original orchestral colors (with help from John Culvahouse), and many musical elements left out of the original Respighi orchestral ballet were reinstated. The availability of this updated version will hopefully encourage a greater number of conductors and ensembles to perform this unique, important work more often and give the piece a more significant place in the repertoire. The purpose of this project is to give La Boutique Fantasque a modern treatment, and in turn, bring it to wider audience.