The Lady of the Camellias

The Lady of the Camellias (French: La Dame aux camélias) is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils, first published in 1848.

Adapted for the stage, La Dame aux camélias premiered at the Theatre de Vaudeville in Paris, France on February 2, 1852. An instant success, Giuseppe Verdi immediately set about to put the story to music. His work became the 1853 opera La Traviata with the female protagonist "Marguerite Gautier" renamed "Violetta Valéry".

In the English-speaking world, La Dame aux Camélias became known as Camille and sixteen versions have been performed at Broadway theatres alone. The Lady of the Camellias is "Marguerite Gautier" who is based on Marie Duplessis, the real life lover of author Dumas, fils.

Stage performances

Since its debut as a play, numerous editions have been performed at theatres around the world. The role of the tragic "Marguerite Gautier" became one of the most coveted amongst actresses and included performances by Lillian Gish, Eleonora Duse, Margaret Anglin, Gabrielle Réjane, Tallulah Bankhead, Eva Le Gallienne, Isabelle Adjani, and especially Sarah Bernhardt, who starred in Paris, London, and several Broadway revivals, plus a 1912 film. Dancer/Impressario Ida Rubinstein successfully recreated Bernhardt's interpretation of the role onstage in the mid-1920s, coached by the great actress herself before she died. It is also the inspriration for the 2008 Musical Marguerite, however, the story is based in 1944 German-occupied France.

Film adaptations

In addition to inspiring La Traviata, The Lady of the Camellias has been adapted for approximately twenty different motion pictures in numerous countries and in a wide variety of languages. The role of "Marguerite Gautier" has been played on screen by Sarah Bernhardt, Clara Kimball Young, Theda Bara, Yvonne Printemps, Alla Nazimova, Greta Garbo, Micheline Presle, Francesca Bertini, Isabelle Huppert and others.

Films entitled Camille

Main article: Camille (film)

To date, there have been at least eight adaptations of The Lady of the Camellias entitled Camille.

Other films based on La Dame aux Camélias

In addition to the Camille films, the story has been the adapted into numerous other screen versions:

• Kameliadamen, the first movie based on the work. Kameliadamen was a 1907 Danish silent film directed by Viggo Larsen and starring Oda Alstrup, Larsen, Gustave Lund and Robert Storm Petersen.

• La Dame aux Camélias, a 1911 French language silent film, directed by André Calmettes and Henri Pouctal. It stars Sarah Bernhardt.

• La Signora delle Camelie, a 1915 Italian language film. It was directed by Baldassarre Negroni and Gustavo Serena. It stars Hesperia, Alberto Collo and Ida Carloni Talli.

• Damen med kameliorna, a 1925 Swedish film adapted and directed by Olof Molander. It stars Uno Henning and Tora Teje.

• La Dame aux Camélias, the first sound adaptation. La Dame aux Camélias was a 1934 French film adapted by Abel Gance and directed by Gance and Fernand Rivers. It stars Yvonne Printemps and Pierre Fresnay.

• Greta Garbo had the starring role in Camille (1936), directed by George Cukor

• A 1944 Spanish language version was produced in Mexico. It was adapted by Roberto Tasker and directed by Gabriel Soria, and stars Lina Montes and Emilio Tuero.

• La Dame aux Camélias, a 1953 French film adapted by Bernard Natanson and directed by Raymond Bernard. It stars Gino Cervi, Micheline Presle and Roland Alexandre.

• Camelia, a 1954 Mexican film adapted by José Arenas, Edmundo Báez, Roberto Gavaldón and Gregorio Walerstein. It was directed by Gavaldón, and stars María Félix.

• La Mujer de las camelias, a 1954 Argentine film adapted by Alexis de Arancibia (as Wassen Eisen) and Ernesto Arancibia, and directed by Ernesto Arancibia. It stars Mona Maris.

• La Dame aux Camélias, a 1980 French language film adapted by Jean Aurenche, Enrico Medioli and Vladimir Pozner, and directed by Mauro Bolognini. It stars Isabelle Huppert.

The story also partly inspired the plot of the movies Pretty Woman and Moulin Rouge!.

See also

• List of European camellia books

External links

• Full texts at Project Gutenberg in the original French and in an English translation