The Rights of the Soul - One Act Play

by Giuseppe Giacosa

Overview

THE RIGHTS OF THE SOUL
ONE ACT
BY GIUSEPPE GIACOSA

[SCENE: A living-room well furnished in an old fashioned style but not shabbily. An open fire-place which is practical. A sofa. A writing desk. A closet at the back. Door leading into Anna's room at the left. Window at the right.
Paolo discovered seated at the writing desk upon which there is a confusion of papers.]

[Servant—Maddalena enters.]
PAOLO. Well, has he returned yet?
MADDALENA. Not yet.
PAOLO. He has taken a lot of time!
MADDALENA. I have been to look for him at the post-office café.
PAOLO. I told you to look in his room or in the garden. Was it necessary to run all over the country?

Product Details

BN ID:	2940161115329
Publisher:	Gerald Murphy
Publication date:	01/14/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	53 KB

About the Author

The son of a Piedmontese lawyer, Giacosa earned a law degree from the University of Turin but soon abandoned the law to write for the theatre. His first successful comedy, Una partita a scacchi (1873; “A Game of Chess”), was set in the European Middle Ages. Giacosa followed this with several more comedies and light historical dramas. He then gradually turned to examining contemporary social problems in the manner of Henrik Ibsen. Giacosa’s best plays, among which are I diritti dell’anima (1894; “Sacred Ground”) and Come le foglie (1900; “Like Falling Leaves”), are psychological investigations of people in crisis.

In 1891 Giacosa was one of several writers asked to work on the libretto for Puccini’s opera Manon Lescaut. Giacosa suggested that Illica assist him, and this led to a collaboration between the two men on the texts of La Bohème (1896), Tosca (1900), and Madama Butterfly (1904). In their collaborations, Illica devised the operas’ structure and first draft, which Giacosa then polished and converted into verse.