The Bolshoi Ballet’s 2015 performance of The Lady of Camelias will be screened at St James Cavalier, Valletta, on Sunday.
The tragic love story is based on a passionate but short-lived relationship with Marie Duplessis by the author, Alexandre Dumas fils (1824–1895), son of the famous novelist Alexandre Dumas.
The story revolves around Armand, a young and naive member of bourgeois society, who arrives in Paris where he is instantly falls in love with Marguerite Gautier. But their relationship, and Marguerite’s life, are at risk when she is diagnosed with a wasting disease, and Armand’s father appears to tear the lovers apart.
The subject of numerous adaptations – most famously, Baz Luhrmann’s lavish 2001 film Moulin Rouge! – this interpretation by the Bolshoi Ballet, originally screened in 2015, breathes new life into the melancholy novel.
Prima ballerina Svetlana Zakharova plays Marguerite – a woman seeking love and redemption from her life as a courtesan – in a production by Bolshoi choreographer John Neumeier and featuring Chopin’s romantic piano score.
The Lady of Camelias will be screened at the St James Cavalier Cinema, Valletta, on Sunday at 6pm. For tickets, visit www.kreattivita.org or call 2122 3200.