Editing Giacomo Puccini (section)

==Librettists==
The libretto of ''Edgar'' was a significant factor in the failure of that opera. Thereafter, especially throughout his middle and late career, Puccini was extremely selective, and at times indecisive, in his choice of subject matter for new works.<ref name="Girardi" /> Puccini was deeply involved in the process of writing the libretto itself, requiring many iterative revisions of his libretti in terms of both structure and text. Puccini's relationships with his librettists were at times very difficult. His publisher, Casa Ricordi, was frequently required to mediate disputes and impasses between them.<ref name="Phillips-Matz" />

Puccini explored many possible subjects that he ultimately rejected only after a significant amount of effort—such as the creation of a libretto—had been put into them.{{sfn|Phillips-Matz|2002|loc=''passim''}} Among the subjects that Puccini seriously considered, but abandoned, were: ''Cristoforo Sly'', ''Anima Allegra'' (based on the play ''El genio alegre'' by Serafín and Joaquín Álvarez Quintero), ''Two Little Wooden Shoes'' (''I due zoccoletti'') (a short story by Maria Louise Ramé, a.k.a. [[Ouida]]), the life of [[Marie Antoinette]], Margherita da Cortona, and ''Conchita'' (based on the novel ''La Femme et le pantin'' – ''The Woman and the Puppet'', by Pierre Loüys).<ref name="Phillips-Matz" /> Some of these abandoned subjects were taken up and turned into operas by other composers. For example, [[Franco Vittadini]] made an opera of ''Anima Allegra'', Mascagni's opera ''Lodoletta'' is derived from ''Two Little Wooden Shoes'', and [[Riccardo Zandonai]] eventually wrote ''[[Conchita (opera)|Conchita]]''.<ref name="Phillips-Matz" />