Demimonde whom Captain Rawdon Crawley lusts after in his younger days. Becky Sharp is perceived as a demimondaine before she is presented at court, and then becomes one when she travels through Europe after her husband abandons her. Possibly the most famous portrayal of the demimonde, albeit from before the word was coined, is in Verdi's opera "La traviata" (1853). The opera, in turn, was inspired by Alexandre Dumas the younger's "La Dame aux Camélias;" Marguerite Gautier, the heroine of the book and subsequent play, was based on Marie Duplessis, 1840s Paris courtesan and mistress to a number of prominent men,
Claude-Michel Schönberg 8 October 2005. The Broadway production closed on 18 May 2003, making it the third-longest-running Broadway musical, following "Cats" and "The Phantom of the Opera". Schönberg oversaw the production of "Les Misérables" that returned to Broadway for an intended six-month engagement at the Broadhurst Theatre on 9 November 2006, although it later extended its run. Schönberg's "Marguerite" includes music by Michel Legrand and lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer. Set during World War II in occupied Paris, and inspired by the romantic novel "La Dame aux camélias" by Alexandre Dumas, fils, "Marguerite" is about the mistress of a high-ranking German officer who