79. [Casa mia, casa mia]

Puccini wrote this modest little song at the wish of the writer and magazine publisher Edoardo De Fonseca (for whom Puccini had previously composed Terra e mare, see 73). This time, Puccini’s work was destined for publication in De Fonseca’s new periodical entitled La Casa. For that, De Fonseca had sent a questionnnaire to Puccini, consisting of inquiries regarding his three houses at Torre del Lago, Chiatri, and Boscolungo Abetone. Puccini obliged by filling in his replies to this questionnaire on 29 November 1908 (the manuscript is included with 79.B.1 in US-NYpm). In return, De Fonseca promised to advertise the composer’s house at Boscolungo for sale in his magazine. The advertisement seems to have been successful, for after August 1908 Puccini never resided in the house which he had purchased in the summer of 1903. However, documentation of the sale has still not been traced (see Schickling 1989, pp. 179 ff.).
De Fonseca used the questionnaire for an article in his magazine. As reported in Kaye 1987, the text of the song is a paraphrase of an Italian saying about one’s beloved home (equivalent to “Home, Sweet Home” in English). The musical character of these few bars remind one of La Frugola’s music in Il Tabarro (85), composed some years later.
Though Puccini immediately dissociated himself from his work (see his comment to De Fonseca in 79.B.1), the text may have affected him deeply at that time, for he was at the crux of his worst marital crisis and feared the collapse of his family and therefore the possible loss of his “home, sweet home.”