Marguerite and Armand

Choreography · Frederick Ashton (1963)

music by Franz Liszt (Piano Sonata in B minor, S.178, 1854, and La lugubre gondola No. 1, 1883, used for the Prologue), orchestrated by Humphrey Searle for the 1963 premiere; later re-orchestrated by Gordon Jacob (1968) and Dudley Simpson (1977, used in most subsequent revivals)

Dying of tuberculosis, the Parisian courtesan Marguerite Gautier relives her love affair with the younger Armand Duval in a series of feverish flashbacks. Having abandoned her wealthy protector to live with Armand in the countryside, she is secretly persuaded by his father to give him up for the sake of his family's reputation, and does so without explanation. Believing she betrayed him for money, Armand publicly humiliates her before learning the truth from his father, and rushes back only in time to hold her as she dies in his arms.

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