| Marguerite and Armand was created by Ashton for Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev at the height of their legendary partnership, when she was in her late forties and he in his twenties. Inspired by Dumas’s love story La Dame aux Camelias, Ashton distilled the story into concentrated episodes told in feverish flashbacks—his choreography so intense that Fonteyn recalled the tragic love story as being ‘a passion more real than life itself’. The ballet was never danced by another couple as long as she and Nureyev were alive, but was revived by Anthony Dowell (then Director of The Royal Ballet) for Sylvie Guillem and Nicolas Le Riche in 2000, and has since been performed by star pairings including Tamara Rojo/Sergei Polunin, Zenaida Yanowsky/ Roberto Bolle, Alessandra Ferri/ Federico Bonelli and Natalia Osipova/ Vladimir Shklyarov. |
MUSIC
Franz Liszt, orchestrated by Humphrey Searle (La lugubre gondola, No 1, 1883 and Sonata in B minor, 1854)
SCENERY & COSTUMES
Cecil Beaton
DANCERS
Marguerite: Margot Fonteyn (in prologue, Ann Jenner)
Armand: Rudolf Nureyev
His Father: Michael Somes
A Duke: Leslie Edwards
Maid: Barbara Remington
Admirers of Marguerite: corps de ballet
FIRST PERFORMANCE
Royal Ballet, Royal Opera House, London, 12 March 1963
New Stagings / Productions
Royal Ballet touring section, 1968
STAGING
Royal Ballet touring section
MUSIC
New orchestration by Gordon Jacob, 15 March 1968
DANCERS
In all stagings, Marguerite: Margot Fonteyn; Armand: Rudolf Nureyev
FIRST PERFORMANCE
Hessiches Staatstheater, Wiesbaden, 28 May 1968
Nureyev Festival, 1977
NEW PRODUCTION
Nureyev Festival
MUSIC
Orchestrated by Dudley Simpson (La lugubre gondola omitted)
DANCERS
In all stagings, Marguerite: Margot Fonteyn; Armand: Rudolf Nureyev
FIRST PERFORMANCE
Coliseum, London, 4 July 1977
Royal Ballet, 2000
NEW PRODUCTION
Royal Ballet
REPRODUCED BY
Uncredited
MUSIC
Orchestrated by Dudley Simpson
DANCERS
Marguerite: Sylvie Guillem; Armand: Nicolas Le Riche; His Father: David Drew
FIRST PERFORMANCE
Royal Opera House, London, 29 February 2000
Royal Ballet/Paris Opera Ballet, 2004
STAGING
Royal Ballet/Paris Opera Ballet
REPRODUCED BY
Grant Coyle
DANCERS
Marguerite: Sylvie Guillem; Armand: Nicolas Le Riche; His Father: Anthony Dowell
FIRST PERFORMANCE
Entente Cordiale gala, Opéra National de Paris, Palais Garnier, 29 September 2004
By other companies:
La Scala, Milan, 1966
STAGING
La Scala, Milan; under the title Margherita e Armando
FIRST PERFORMANCE
Teatro all Scala, Milan, 16 September 1966
Ballet of the Opéra, Paris, 1966
STAGING
Ballet of the Opéra, Paris
FIRST PERFORMANCE
Opéra, Paris, 17 November 1966
Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires, 1967
STAGING
Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires; under the title Margarita y Armando
FIRST PERFORMANCE
Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires, 14 April 1967
Associaçao de Ballet do Rio de Janeiro, 1967
STAGING
Associaçao de Ballet do Rio de Janeiro
FIRST PERFORMANCE
Teatro Municipal, Rio de Janeiro, 25 April 1967
Ballett der Wiener Staatsoper, 1967
STAGING
Ballett der Wiener Staatsoper; under the title Marguerite und Armand
REPRODUCED BY
Leslie Edwards
FIRST PERFORMANCE
Staatsoper, Vienna, 10 September 1967
An Evening with Fonteyn and Nureyev, 1975
STAGING
An Evening with Fonteyn and Nureyev
COSTUMES
New costumes by William Chappell
FIRST PERFORMANCE
John F Kennedy Center, Washington DC, 8 July 1975
Uris Theater, New York NY, 28 November 1975
Copyright © 2004 by David Vaughan. ‘Work note’ © Frederick Ashton Foundation.
This listing is part of a chronology that was originally published in Vaughan’s Frederick Ashton and His Ballets (Alfred E Knopf 1976; 2nd ed., London: Dance Books, 1999) and includes new productions added since then, and up until 2007