Giuseppe Giacosa

Born near Turin in 1847, Giuseppe Giacosa studied law at the University of Turin but soon turned fully to literature and the stage. He first won wide attention with the verse play Una partita a scacchi and went on to become one of Italy’s most respected dramatists of the late 19th century.

His plays often focused on middle-class life, combining elegance with emotional realism. Alongside his work for the theatre, he became internationally famous through his collaboration with Luigi Illica on the librettos for three of Giacomo Puccini’s best-known operas: La bohème, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly.

Giacosa died in 1906 in his native Piedmont. Today he is remembered both as a major Italian man of letters and as a writer whose finely shaped language helped give some of opera’s most enduring works their human warmth and poetic force.