About the work
The Lady of the Camellias is a ballet in a prologue and three acts by John Neumeier, based on Alexandre Dumas's novel of the same name. Neumeier also wrote the libretto; the score consists entirely of piano works by Frédéric Chopin. It premiered on 4 November 1978 with the Stuttgart Ballet, with Marcia Haydée in the title role, to whom Neumeier dedicated the work.
Plot
After the courtesan Marguerite Gautier's death, her belongings are auctioned off. Through a series of flashbacks from shifting perspectives — Armand's, his father's and Marguerite's — the story of her desperate love for the young Armand Duval unfolds, undone by social constraints and Marguerite's tuberculosis. Neumeier artfully mirrors her fate in the "stage fate" of another tragic pair of lovers, Manon Lescaut and the Chevalier des Grieux.
Cultural significance
The Lady of the Camellias is regarded as one of the most significant narrative ballets of the twentieth century and ranks among Neumeier's most performed works; it celebrated its 100th performance at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. Dumas's 1848 novel La Dame aux Camélias also inspired Verdi's opera La Traviata — both works tell the same story in different genres.