Carla Fracci

Fracci is known for her interpretation of leading characters in several Romantic ballets, such as La Sylphide, Giselle, Swan Lake, and Romeo and Juliet.

[5][6] In 1946, her mother brought her and her sister to a La Scala Theatre Ballet School entrance exam, which ended up being disastrous for Fracci.

However, after she was cast as the mandolin in The Sleeping Beauty, performing alongside Margot Fonteyn, she changed her mind about ballet training and "started working very hard to catch up for the lost time.

Her breakthrough came when she filled in for Violette Verdy in Rodrigues' Cinderella in 1958, which led to her promotion to principal dancer,[6][8] and further to her dancing the title role in Giselle with the London Festival Ballet the following year.

[7] Fracci performed with partners including Mikhail Baryshnikov, Roberto Bolle, Erik Bruhn, Alexander Godunov, Henning Kronstam, Gheorghe Iancu, Rudolf Nureyev, Giuseppe Picone and Vladimir Vasiliev.

The repertoire at the Rome Opera's ballet ranged from Millicent Hodson's adaptation of The Rite of Spring[11] to Andris Liepa's versions of Scheherazade,[12] Petrushka and The Firebird.

[15] On 16 October 2004, Fracci was named Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger.

In accordance with her wishes, cemetery workers were photographed in the act of sealing her tomb, with Menegatti explaining that "without the technicians, there would be no show".

Fracci in 1957
Fracci at her prime in La Sylphide with Erik Bruhn .
Fracci still dancing at 70 with Fabio Grossi (dancer) .