Photographer Gérard Uféras has been granted full access to the La Scala ballet corps’ backstage over six years to produce a series of emotional and candid portraits at the heart of a new exhibition at the theater’s museum and a soon-to-be published book.

Carla Fracci, an Italian cultural icon and former La Scala prima ballerina renowned for romantic roles alongside such greats as Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov, died Thursday at her home in Milan.