Franco Alfano

Franco Alfano (March 8, 1875 - October 27, 1954) was an Italian composer and pianist.

Related Topics:
March 8 - 1875 - October 27 - 1954 - Italian - Pianist

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He was was born in Posillipo, near Naples. Today he is perhaps best known for completing Giacomo Puccini's unfinished opera Turandot in 1926. Alfano died in San Remo.

Related Topics:
Posillipo - Naples - Giacomo Puccini - Turandot - San Remo

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Studied in Naples, conservatory San Pietro a Majella. Leipzing 1895, where he met his idol, Edvard Grieg. Numerous piano and orchestral pieces; completed his first opera, still unpublished, MIRANDA (1896). LA FONTE DI ENSCHIR refused by Ricordi, appeared in Breslau as Die Quelle von Enschir (1898). In 1918, Director of Conservatory of Bologna; 1923,led Turin COnservatory.

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Alfano's reputation suffered because (a) he should not be judged as a composer on the basis of the task he was given in completing TURANDOT (La Scala, Paril 25, 1926), (b) "we almost never hear everything he wrote for TURANDOT--the standard ending heavily edits Alfano's work." (c)"...it is not his conclusion that is performed in productions of TURANDOT but only what the premiere conductor Arturo Toscanini included from it...Puccini had worked for nine months on the following concluding duet and at his death had left behind a whole ream of sketches....Alfano had to reconstruct ...according to his best assessment...and with his imagination and magnifying glass" since Puccini's material "had not really been legible."

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Fogel: "Alfano's reputation has also suffered , understandably, because of his willingness to associate himself closely with Mussolini's Fascist government."

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RISURREZIONE(1904), based on Tolstoy, is his early success. Cyrano de Bergerac, persumably composed to the French libretto by Henri Cain, had its Italian version premiere in January 1936, and its French version premiere four months later. Alfano's-- 19:11, 14 September 2005 (UTC)-- 19:11, 14 September 2005 (UTC) third important opera appeared as La leggenda di Sakùntala in 1921, presented revised in 1952 as Sakùntala.

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19:11, 14 September 2005 (UTC)ravkein

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