0:00:07 > 0:00:10How many times have I looked in that mirror, as I put on my make up
0:00:10 > 0:00:12for Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty,
0:00:12 > 0:00:17an important first night, or an exciting gala at Covent Garden,
0:00:17 > 0:00:20or just one of the hundreds of performances
0:00:20 > 0:00:22that go to make up a long career?
0:00:22 > 0:00:25I never felt it was routine.
0:00:25 > 0:00:28What they call the smell of the greasepaint
0:00:28 > 0:00:31and the lure of the footlights never lost their magic for me.
0:00:33 > 0:00:37The opera house fireman always brought me a cup of tea at the end of a show.
0:00:37 > 0:00:40My favourites were all the Frederick Ashton ballets.
0:00:40 > 0:00:45The last one he created for me was the first ballet ever created for Rudolf Nureyev.
0:00:45 > 0:00:47It was Marguerite And Armand.
0:00:47 > 0:00:51Ashton chose Liszt's music and the well-known story by Dumas
0:00:51 > 0:00:53called The Lady Of The Camellias,
0:00:53 > 0:00:55about the love of a famous courtesan
0:00:55 > 0:00:57and a young man of good family,
0:00:57 > 0:01:03set in mid-19th century Paris, when such a liaison was a social scandal.
0:01:03 > 0:01:07Michael Soames played Armand's father.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10Let's imagine those moments when the curtain rises,
0:01:10 > 0:01:12and all that we can see from the stage
0:01:12 > 0:01:15are the lights shining through the darkness.
0:01:15 > 0:01:19As the ballet opens, Marguerite is dying of consumption,
0:01:19 > 0:01:23and, in her delirium, she relives the episodes of her love for Armand.
0:01:28 > 0:01:30Amid the confusion of her dreams,
0:01:30 > 0:01:34she imagines she sees him, far away and out of her reach.
0:01:34 > 0:01:39MUSIC: "Piano Sonata in B Minor" By Franz Liszt
0:02:10 > 0:02:14In her imagination, Armand seems to appear before her.
0:03:49 > 0:03:53Marguerite, in her dreams, goes back to the day of their first meeting.
0:03:53 > 0:03:58At that time, her illness was only in the early stages.
0:03:58 > 0:04:00She gave Armand a camellia,
0:04:00 > 0:04:03and she remembers that it was at an evening party
0:04:03 > 0:04:07where she was surrounded by men, and escorted by a rich duke.
0:10:23 > 0:10:25Armand and Marguerite had fallen in love,
0:10:25 > 0:10:28and she dreams of the days when Armand took her away
0:10:28 > 0:10:32from Paris to the country, where they lived in idyllic happiness.
0:11:52 > 0:11:54One day, Armand's father arrived,
0:11:54 > 0:11:58and he persuaded her that she must renounce his son.
0:20:38 > 0:20:41Marguerite gave him no explanation.
0:20:41 > 0:20:46She let him believe that she really wanted to return to her old way of life in Paris.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20She remembers Armand's fury when he found her
0:21:20 > 0:21:22surrounded by her admirers.
0:21:33 > 0:21:36The young men had always been sure she would go back to them.
0:21:36 > 0:21:41They were waiting for her to appear, covered in diamonds on the arm of the duke.
0:26:57 > 0:27:00Armand's father was so shocked by his son's conduct
0:27:00 > 0:27:03that he resolved to tell him the truth of Marguerite's love.
0:27:11 > 0:27:15Humiliated and broken, Marguerite is on her deathbed
0:27:15 > 0:27:19when Armand's father hurries to tell her that Armand will soon be with her again.
0:32:11 > 0:32:14Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:32:14 > 0:32:17E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk