Marguerite and Armand Marguerite and Armand Marguerite and Armand is a ballet danced to an orchestral arrangement of Franz Liszt's B minor piano sonata. It was created in 1963 by the British choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton specifically for Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn. The ballet takes its inspiration from the 19th-century novel "La Dame aux Camélias" by Alexandre Dumas, "fils", and other adaptations of the same story such as Giuseppe Verdi's opera "La traviata". Marguerite Gautier, a Parisian courtesan, lies on her deathbed, gravely ill with tuberculosis. In her delirium she recalls her love affair with a young man named Armand, which the
Giuseppe Verdi Senate, but did not participate in its activities. In the months following the staging of "Ballo", Verdi was approached by several opera companies seeking a new work or making offers to stage one of his existing ones, but refused them all. But when, in December 1860, an approach was made from Saint Petersburg's Imperial Theatre, the offer of 60,000 francs plus all expenses was doubtless a strong incentive. Verdi came up with the idea of adapting the 1835 Spanish play "Don Alvaro o la fuerza del sino" by Angel Saavedra, which became "La forza del destino", with Piave writing the