Puccini, Fascism, and the Case of Turandot

How many times did Giacomo Puccini meet Benito Mussolini? Mary Jane Phillips-Matz suggests the two men met twice, within a matter of weeks. She cites a letter from Puccini to Pietrino Malfatti—“an old friend from Torre [del Lago]”—of 1 December 1923, in which the composer mentions a meeting with the Duce that very day. This apparently followed a previous encounter in November.¹ Phillips-Matz’s account contradicts the previous understanding, established in the earliest biographies, that the two men met only once.² Perhaps her two meetings were one and the same. The date in November has never been confirmed with