Lot Essay
Comprising fourteen photographs by Cecil Beaton including five individual portraits of Nureyev, two of Fonteyn and eight of them together both behind the scenes and during the performance.
'Marguerite and Armand' based on Dumas' novel La Dame aux Camelias was the fortieth work that Sir Frederick Ashton had made for the Royal Ballet since its inception in 1931. It was his first full-length ballet for Fonteyn since 'Ondine' in 1958 and the first one he made for Nureyev who was twenty years her junior.
Cecil Beaton was responsible for the set designs and costumes, both of which received mixed reviews. He was criticised for the huge pictures of Nureyev's agonised features which were projected on the backcloth during the dream sequences and one paper reported on a tantrum Nureyev had over one of the costumes Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev was about to take Dame Margot Fonteyn in his arms...Then he ripped off the collar and bow of his costume and hurled it into the wings...
'Marguerite and Armand' based on Dumas' novel La Dame aux Camelias was the fortieth work that Sir Frederick Ashton had made for the Royal Ballet since its inception in 1931. It was his first full-length ballet for Fonteyn since 'Ondine' in 1958 and the first one he made for Nureyev who was twenty years her junior.
Cecil Beaton was responsible for the set designs and costumes, both of which received mixed reviews. He was criticised for the huge pictures of Nureyev's agonised features which were projected on the backcloth during the dream sequences and one paper reported on a tantrum Nureyev had over one of the costumes Russian dancer Rudolf Nureyev was about to take Dame Margot Fonteyn in his arms...Then he ripped off the collar and bow of his costume and hurled it into the wings...