Marie Antoinette, a project frustrated by the librettist's illness. Puccini wrote in November 1905, "Will we go back to it? [Maria Antonietta] If I find three one-act works that suit me, I'll put off M.A." Puccini pursued neither project, as Giacosa's illness led to his death in September 1906. In March 1907, Puccini wrote to Carlo Clausetti, Ricordi's representative in Naples, proposing three one-act operas based on scenes from stories by Russian novelist Maxim Gorky. By May the composer had set aside this proposal to concentrate on the project which became , although he did not wholly abandon the idea of a multiple-opera evening. His next idea in this vein, some years later, was for a two-opera bill, one tragic and one comic; he later expanded this to include a third opera with a mystic or religious tone. By November 1916 Puccini had completed the "tragic" element, which became , but he still lacked ideas for the other two works. He considered staging in combination with his own early work , or with other two-act operas which might be used to round out the evening's entertainment. Finally, librettist Giovacchino Forzano presented the composer with two works of his own, which became and . The latter would be Puccini's first setting of a comic text; although his earlier operas, for example , contain comic episodes, these are merely ancillary to the drama to provide contrast. Forzano wrote to Tito Ricordi, Giulio's son, on 3 March 1917: I sent the libretto of to Maestro Puccini some days ago. He has declared himself – kind as he is – very satisfied ... I have also finished a brief outline of a plot based on . You know the Maestro's opinion of this subject, which is rich in possibilities and whose comic nature is quite out of the ordinary. In fact, Puccini was at first less than enthusiastic about the idea for this comic opera – Florence as a setting did not appeal to him, and he feared the public would have little interest in the subject. However, he soon became interested and did some work on the piece even while composing . The religious-themed opera was completed in September 1917, and Puccini turned his full attention to , although the war news and the 1918 influenza pandemic, in which Puccini lost a sister, distracted him from his work. The first draft was completed