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Why did Giuseppe Giacosa initially resist writing the libretto for 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.

Giuseppe Giacosa initially resisted working on the libretto for Tosca because he disapproved of the story and recognized that it would be difficult to adapt into verse.1

Despite this initial reluctance, Giacosa eventually collaborated with Luigi Illica to complete the work for Giacomo Puccini, with Illica drafting the structure and Giacosa refining the text into its final poetic form.2