sentences:  In French and Italian opera, which had possessed an established libretto tradition for centuries, the introduction of the literaturoper took place parallel to the discussions about the possibility of writing opera libretti in prose..Since the Italian tradition of operatic verse proved to be particularly resistant to the introduction of prose libretti, the first Italian literaturopern were crerated on the basis of Gabriele d'Annunzio’s verse dramas (Alberto Franchetti, "La figlia di Iorio" (1906), Pietro Mascagni, "Parisina" (1913), Riccardo Zandonai, "Francesca da Rimini" (1914), Ildebrando Pizzetti, "Fedra" (1915).The first composers to directly set plays include Charles Gounod, Pietro Mascagni, Claude Debussy, Richard Strauss and Alban Berg.