Giuseppe Giacosa (1847-1906) was an Italian poet, playwright and librettist. He gained initial fame for writing the poems in Una Partita a Scacchi (A Game of Chess) in 1871. His main field was playwriting, which he accomplished with both insight and simplicity, using subjects set in Piedmont and themes addressing contemporary bourgeois values. He wrote La Dame de Challant for noted French actress Sarah Bernhardt, which she produced in New York in...