Sarah Bernhardt was a French stage actress who starred in some of the more popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas fils, Ruy Blas by Victor Hugo, Fédora and La Tosca by Victorien Sardou, and L'Aiglon by Edmond Rostand. She also played male roles, including Shakespeare's Hamlet. Rostand called her "the queen of the pose and the princess of the gesture", and Hugo praised her "golden voice". She made several theatrical tours around the world, and she was one of the early prominent actresses to make sound recordings and to act in motion pictures.
Bernhardt in 1880
Bernhardt with her mother
Debut of Bernhardt in Les Femmes Savantes at the Comédie Française, 1862
Sarah Bernhardt in 1864; age 20, by photographer Félix Nadar
The Lady of the Camellias
The Lady of the Camellias, sometimes called in English Camille, is a novel by Alexandre Dumas fils. First published in 1848 and subsequently adapted by Dumas for the stage, the play premiered at the Théâtre du Vaudeville in Paris, France, on February 2, 1852. It was an instant success. Shortly thereafter, Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi set about putting the story to music in the 1853 opera La traviata, with female protagonist Marguerite Gautier renamed Violetta Valéry.
Alphonse Mucha's poster for a performance of the theatrical version, with Sarah Bernhardt (1896)
Marie Duplessis painted by Édouard Viénot
Illustration by Albert Lynch
Eugénie Doche created the role of Marguerite Gautier in 1852