Puccini had been considering an opera on this theme since he saw the play Tosca by Victorien Sardou in 1889, when he wrote to his publisher, Giulio Ricordi, begging him to get Sardou's permission for the work to be made into an opera: " I see in this Tosca the opera I need, with no overblown proportions, no elaborate spectacle, nor will it call for the usual excessive amount of music.

On 7 May 1889 he wrote to his publisher, Giulio Ricordi, begging him to get Sardou's permission for the work to be made into an opera: " I see in this Tosca the opera I need, with no overblown proportions, no elaborate spectacle, nor will it call for the usual excessive amount of music.

Band members and wives wrote hundreds of letters to radio stations begging them to play the song.

There was popular objection when Barnum's proposal became known ; 100, 000 school children wrote to Queen Victoria begging her not to sell the elephant.

Sullavan's older daughter, Brooke, in 1977 wrote about the breakdown in her autobiography Haywire: Sullavan had humiliated herself by begging her son to stay with her.

For seven years there was no communication between the two branches of the family, till at last, when Hypatius had become a Christian, Salvian wrote him a most touching letter in his own name, his wife's, and that of his little daughter Auspiciola, begging for the renewal of the old affection.

It was probably from Marseilles that he wrote his first letter — presumably to Lerins — begging the community there to receive his kinsman, the son of a widow of Cologne, who had been reduced to poverty by the barbarian invasions.

There is no record of the couple having a child, and Jane makes no mention of a child for whom she is responsible when she wrote a begging letter to Cromwell following George's death.

In fact his distress was so acute that the Constable of the Tower, William Kingston wrote to Cromwell twice begging him to help ease George's conscience.

About 161 Melitus wrote a celebrated apology for Christianity which he sent to Marcus Aurelius, begging him " not overlook us in the midst of such lawless plundering by the mob.

The emperor Justin wrote to the pope a fortnight after the scene of the acclamations, begging him to further the desires of the patriarch John for the reunion of the churches.

To Proclus the matter appeared so serious that towards the close of 437 he wrote to John I of Antioch, as the leading prelate of the East, though really having no canonical jurisdiction over Osrhoene, begging him to persuade Ibas, if innocent, to remove the scandal by condemning publicly certain propositions chiefly drawn from Theodore's writings against the errors of Nestorius.

As ambassador Elyot had been involved in ruinous expense, and on his return he wrote unsuccessfully to Cromwell begging to be excused, on the grounds of his poverty, from serving as High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire for 1532.

Ironically, Hitler attended performances that included Jewish and foreign singers, long after they had been banned from all other venues across Germany ( including heldentenor, Max Lorenz, married to a well-known Jewish woman ) Winifred's influence with Hitler was so strong that Hitler even wrote a letter ( at her behest ) to anti-fascist Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini, begging him to lead the festival.

It was there that he wrote a letter to James II begging forgiveness.

On 19 July 1585 he wrote from there to Burghley, begging permission to visit the wells at Warwick for the benefit of his health.

While awaiting his execution, Bonnet wrote to Governor Johnson, begging abjectly for clemency and promising to have his own arms and legs cut off as assurance that he would never again commit piracy.

On 23 February 1572 he wrote, begging the queen to release him.

In contrast Hal Hinson, writing for the Washington Post wrote, " The pace is quick and efficient but never frantic ... almost everything in the picture is just right, including the two-bit crooks who abduct the superhero toddler and end up bruised and begging hilariously for mercy.

In July 1918, Victoria wrote her first cousin, Margaret, the Crown Princess of Sweden, begging her to send baby food so she could feed Vladimir.

Whereas previous editors had written glossed-over stories of brave men dueling over their honor, Harris wrote about grown men urinating in their pants from fear, missing their shots wildly because of fear and sometimes begging for mercy.

Examples from Ancient Egypt range from the most formal-' the royal widow ... Ankhesenamun wrote a letter to the king of the Hittites, Egypt's old enemy, begging him to send one of his sons to Egypt to marry her ' - to the down-to-earth: let me ' bathe in thy presence, that I may let thee see my beauty in my tunic of finest linen, when it is wet '.

He wrote a letter to the Blessed Virgin begging her to call him to the skies there to celebrate with her the glorious anniversary of her Assumption.

The novel is a masterpiece of psychological realism and emotional effect, and when Richardson was drawing to a close in the serial publication, even Henry Fielding wrote to him, begging him not to kill Clarissa.

Then there was Mark Howe and there was Henry Dwight Sedgwick, an accomplished man of letters who wrote in the spirit of Montaigne and produced in the end a formidable body of work.

There she extracted two limp vellum sheets and wrote off the letters, one to Abel, one to Mark.

After he had been away from home about a year he wrote: `` ( dear Wife ) if I did not write and receive letters from you I believe that I would forgit that I was married.

Sometimes soldiers wrote letters while bullets were whizzing about their heads.

Sometimes these servants wrote or dictated for enclosure with the letters of their soldier-masters messages to their relatives and to members of their owners' families.

He was born into a family of writers, the best known of whom was his paternal aunt, Anna Letitia Barbauld, a woman of letters who wrote poetry and essays as well as early children's literature.

In the 1780s while Mozart lived and worked in Vienna, he and his father Leopold wrote in their letters that several " cabals " of Italians led by Salieri were actively putting roadblocks in the way of Mozart's obtaining certain posts or staging his operas.

" In July 1783 Mozart wrote to his father of " a trick of Salieri's ", one of several letters in which he accused Salieri of trickery.

In February 1903, two followers of Muhammad ` Alí, including Badi ' u ' llah and Siyyid ` Aliy-i-Afnan, broke with Muhammad ` Ali and wrote books and letters giving details of Muhammad ` Ali's plots and noting that what was circulating about ` Abdu ' l-Bahá was fabrication.

He also wrote several shorter letters and essays discussing specific aspects of computus.

There the admiral wrote letters describing the events of the previous months: " It is an old saying, ' the Devil's children have the Devil's luck.

His father was gifted at drawing as well, wooing Alston's mother with small sketches in the medians of letters he wrote her.

Some of the letters she wrote to her father complaining of her treatment have survived.

Whilst awaiting trial, Kidd was confined in the infamous Newgate Prison and wrote several letters to King William requesting clemency.

As a result of his letters and, no doubt, personal conversations, Huxley and Haeckel were convinced that, at the time he wrote Principles, he believed new species had arisen by natural methods.

Both Whewell and Sedgwick wrote worried letters to him about this.

Some angry fans of Earnhardt wrote hate letters and death threats to Sterling Marlin, blaming him for causing the crash.

His son Christopher Trumbo wrote a play based on his letters during the period of the blacklist, entitled Red, White and Blacklisted ( 2003 ), produced in New York in 2003.

The girl's mother wrote letters of complaint to the California Attorney General and to Los Angeles prosecutors.

His wife managed to get him released from prison, and he wrote letters to his former wife, and told her he never ceased loving her.

During his imprisonment he wrote many letters, pleading his innocence.

This conjecture is also supported by other letters Galois later wrote to his friends the night before he died.

As its only member, in the role of " Parcier et Maître de Chapelle " he started to compose a ( later to become known as the ), and wrote a flood of letters, articles and pamphlets showing off his self-assuredness in religious and artistic matters.

While at Stein, Erasmus fell in love with a fellow canon, Servatius Rogerus, and wrote a series of passionate letters in which he called Rogerus " half my soul ".