She was a French country girl: Alphonsine Plessis. She moved to Paris, changed her name to Marie Duplessis and became a fashionable courtesan. In 1848, Alexandre Dumas wrote her story, called her Marguerite, and immortalised her, first in a novel, later in a play as "The Lady of the Camellias". Verdi called her Violetta and made her into the heroine of an opera, "La Traviata"; and when Greta Garbo acted her part in a film, she was called Camille.
Jonathan Miller, who recently produced Verdi's opera for the Kent Opera Company, explores the transformations of this fascinating character, with the voices of Eve Karpf and Anthony Hyde, and extracts from a recording of "La Traviata" by the Berlin State Opera and Chorus conducted by Lamberto Gardelli
Singers Mirella Freni and Franco Bonisolli