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
Abbey of Notre Dame aux Nonnains Abbey of Notre Dame aux Nonnains The Abbey of Notre Dame aux Nonnains (: Abbey of Our Lady of the Nuns), also called the Royal Abbey of Our Lady of Troyes (), was a convent founded before the 7th century in Troyes, France. The non-cloistered canonesses became wealthy and powerful in the Middle Ages. In 1266–68 they defied the pope and used force to delay construction of the collegiate Church of St Urbain. They were excommunicated as a result. Later the abbey adopted a strictly cloistered rule and the nuns became impoverished. Work started on building a new convent in