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Which French play inspired Puccini’s opera Tosca?

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Art Nouveau poster by Adolfo Hohenstein for Puccini's opera Tosca, showing a woman in a gold dress standing over a fallen figure, with dramatic red and black background and bold title text. — Tosca Poster by Adolfo Hohenstein for Giacomo Puccini's opera *Tosca*, 1906.

Giacomo Puccini’s opera Tosca was inspired by the popular 1887 play La Tosca, written by the French playwright Victorien Sardou.1

The play was originally written for the French actress Sarah Bernhardt, and despite criticism regarding its intense violence, it was a major success that Puccini was determined to adapt into an opera. The resulting work, with a libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, premiered in Rome in 1900.213