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 with Boito, produced in 1881, and a revision of "Don Carlos". Even when "Otello" was virtually completed, Verdi teased "Shall I finish it? Shall I have it performed? Hard to tell, even for me." As news leaked out, Verdi was pressed by opera houses across Europe with enquiries; eventually the opera was triumphantly premiered at La Scala in February 1887. Following the success of "Otello" Verdi commented, "After having relentlessly massacred so many heroes and heroines, I have at last the right to laugh a little." He had considered a variety of comic subjects but had found none of them