Arturo Colautti

Arturo Colautti (Zara, 1851 – Rome, 1914) was an Italian writer who devoted himself chiefly to the opera libretto. His career is of interest to the history of Italian musical theatre in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a period in which librettists played a decisive role in the success of works.

In the field of musical theatre, he supplied texts to various composers, in a markedly naturalistic style. His most successful libretti were those for Giordano's Fedora (1898) and Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur (1902). In addition, some of his poems were set to music by F. P. Tosti.

In his later work, his support for the irredentist movement is evident. That movement called for Italy's intervention against Austria in the First World War over territorial disputes on the north-eastern frontier.