Serafina delle Rose is a restless widow whose intense and absorbing instinct for love drives everything before it. The figure of this extraordinary woman dominates the small town where she and her friends are living and embodies the exultation and danger of unbridled passion. Her story, and that of the lover she chooses and the daughter she denies, are forged into a play of power, humanity and soaring emotion.
The Rose Tattoo premiered at the Erlanger Theater in Chicago, IL in December 1950 under the direction of Daniel Mann.