She is considered one of the greatest ballerinas of the twentieth century. In 1981, *The New York Times* designated her a *prima ballerina assoluta*. Starting in 1946, Carla Fracci studied at the La Scala Theatre Ballet School under Edda Martignoni, Vera Volkova, and Esmée Bulnes, graduating in 1954. Two years later, she became a soloist, and subsequently a principal dancer in 1958. In March 1955, she took part in the La Scala Ballet School's graduation performance—dancing with Mario Pistoni in Michel Fokine’s *Le Spectre de la Rose*—following a production of *La Sonnambula* conducted by Leonard Bernstein, directed by Luchino Visconti, and starring Maria Callas. On December 31, 1955, she landed her first major role, stepping in for Violette Verdy in Alfred Rodrigues’s *Cinderella*. In 1957, Anton Dolin chose her to dance in the historic revival of the Perrot-Pugni *Pas de Quatre* at the Nervi Festival alongside Alicia Markova, Yvette Chauviré, and Margaret Schanne—the leading dancers of the era—a performance that brought her spectacular international acclaim. Her fame was further cemented in 1958 when John Cranko created a *Romeo and Juliet* ballet for her, set to Prokofiev’s music and performed by the La Scala company at the Teatro Verde on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice. She danced with some of the most important international ballet companies, such as the London Festival Ballet, the Sadler's Wells Ballet (now known as the Royal Ballet), the Royal Danish Ballet, the Stuttgart Ballet, Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, the Australian Ballet, the Tokyo Ballet, the Ballet of the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, and the National Ballet of Cuba. From 1967, she became a principal guest artist with the American Ballet Theatre.
She is renowned for her interpretations of romantic and dramatic roles, such as *Giselle*—her signature role—*La Sylphide*, *Romeo and Juliet*, *Coppélia*, *Francesca da Rimini*, and *Medea*. She danced with leading male dancers, including Erik Bruhn, Rudolf Nureyev, John Gilpin, Milorad Miskovitch, Vladimir Vasiliev, Henning Kronstam, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Niels Kehlet, Alexander Godunov, Antonio Gades, Andris Liepa, Gheorghe Iancu, Paul Chalmer, Alessandro Molin, Daniel Ezralow, Massimo Murru, and Roberto Bolle. A film was made in 1969 based on her performance of *Giselle* with Bruhn and the American Ballet Theatre.[2] Her repertoire included *Medea*, *Concerto Barocco*, *Les Demoiselles de la Nuit*, *The Seagull*, *Pelléas et Mélisande*, and *The Stone Flower*.
In 1982, she starred in a television drama: she appeared in the RAI miniseries *Verdi*, directed by Renato Castellani, playing the role of Giuseppina Strepponi, a soprano and the composer's second wife.[3] In the late 1980s, she directed the ballet company of the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples. In subsequent years, she gave various performances, including *The Afternoon of a Faun*, *Onegin*, *The Life of Mary*, and *A.M.W.* *Kokoschka's Doll* and *The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone*—to name the most prominent—were among the productions directed by Beppe Menegatti.
From 1996 to 1997, she directed the ballet company of the Arena di Verona. She became a member of the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in 1994, served as president of the environmental association Altritalia Ambiente starting in 1995, and was appointed a FAO Goodwill Ambassador in 2004. In 1997, she was a guest at the final evening of the 40th *Zecchino d'Oro* festival, where she presented a participation medal to Yumiko Ashikawa.
From November 2000 to July 2010, she directed the ballet company of the Rome Opera House. She oversaw both the traditional repertoire and works associated with Sergei Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes—ranging from *The Rite of Spring* and *Jeux* (in the reconstruction by Millicent Hodson and Kenneth Archer) to *Scheherazade*, *The Firebird*, and *Petrushka* (in versions by Andris Liepa). Alongside this work, she staged revivals of lost ballets and new creations, always under the direction of Beppe Menegatti. In 2008, she collaborated with the comic rock band Elio e le Storie Tese on their album *Studentessi*, performing a spoken interlude at the end of the song "Effetto memoria (Inverno)" that introduces the track "Heavy Samba."[4][5] From June 2009 to 2014, she served as the Councillor for Culture for the Province of Florence. In December 2013, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore published her autobiography, *Passo dopo passo* (Step by Step), edited by Enrico Rotelli.[6] She served as an ambassador for Expo 2015. In 2016, she presented the book *Ballerina* by Roberto Baiocchi (published by Giunti Editore)[7], for which she wrote the preface and collaborated artistically alongside her husband, the director Beppe Menegatti. In 2018, she performed with Elisa to the song "Luce (tramonti a nord est)" on the show *Amici di Maria De Filippi*. She passed away on the morning of May 27, 2021, at the age of 84, at her home in Milan, due to cancer.
