The Girl Who Loved Camellias: The Life and Legend of Marie Duplessis (41 page)

Greta Garbo playing opposite Robert Taylor in the 1936 film
Camille
, directed by George Cukor. Giving not only the definitive screen performance, Garbo also comes closest to embodying the real Marie.
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Maria Callas, considered the greatest Violetta, who identified with the heroine to the point of obsession. Photographed by Houston Rogers in the famous 1955 Visconti production at La Scala, Milan.
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Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev rehearsing one of the rapturous duets from
Marguerite and Armand
, the 1963 ballet created by Frederick Ashton as a showpiece for the two stars.
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Isabelle Huppert as Alphonsine in Mauro Bolognini’s 1981 movie
Lady of the Camelias.
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Sultry Anna Netrebko, the superb Violetta of our time, in Willy Decker’s production first staged in Salzburg in 2005.
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Tamara Rojo and Sergei Polunin as Marguerite and Armand—the most exciting and affecting interpreters of Ashton’s ballet since Fonteyn and Nureyev. Their performance at the Royal Opera House in February 2013 was Rojo’s farewell to the Covent Garden stage.
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