Courtesan Marie Duplessis died at just 23 but one of her lovers ensured she would never be forgotten. Made quite a bundle out of her, too. Just a year after her death Alexandre Dumas fils wrote his semi-autobiographical novel La Dame aux Camélias and then, in need of money, adapted the novel for the stage.

Dumas had a hit with his story of doomed love between a dying demimondaine and a young man of good family. Try as they might to find peace in a tranquil retreat far from the temptations of town, the equivocal relationship cannot last.

Hard on the play’s heels came Verdi’s La traviata, a slew of translations for stage and many film versions, the most famous of which is the 1936 Greta Garbo vehicle Camille. Marie Duplessis, renamed Marguerite Gautier by Dumas and Violetta Valéry by Verdi, had given rise to an industry that now includes the musical Moulin Rouge!.

Dances on the subject include John Neumeier’s La Dame aux Camélias in 1978, Frederick Ashton’s one-act Marguerite and Armand from 1963 and Derek Deane’s 2019 version for Shanghai Ballet, where the British choreographer is artistic consultant.