About the Composer
Franco Alfano (1875-1954)
Franco Alfano was born in Posillipo, near Naples, in 1875. Early in life he studied piano and composition at the Conservatorio San Pietro a Majella. At age 20, he moved to Leipzig to study with the composer Solomon Jadassohn. After completing his studies, he moved to Paris, where he wrote two successful ballets for the Folies-Bergere. He began to teach at the Liceo Musicale of Bologna in 1916, and became the Director of the school in 1918.
Alfano’s Risurrezione (1902), a verismo opera based on the novel by Leo Tolstoy, established his operatic career. The work demonstrated the promise of a talented young composer; Alfano was only twenty-eight when it premiered. It was by no means his most original or musically significant work, but it achieved great popularity, perhaps due to its stylistic similarity to the works of Puccini and Giordano.
Alfano wrote several more operas between 1902 and 1930, but most were unsuccessful. Zilah (1907) and L’ombra di Don Giovanni (1913) were faulted for their weak libretti, and the public was equally disinterested in Madonna Imperia (1927) and L’ultimo Lord (1930). However, during this difficult time of struggle and experimentation Alfano also managed to compose what is now considered his most important work, La Leggenda di Sakuntala (1921). The orchestral score was lost in World War II, but was carefully reconstructed by Alfano for its second premiere as Sakuntala in 1952. It was in Sakuntala that Alfano finally found his musical voice, synthesizing his earlier musical experiments into a masterwork.
When Puccini died in 1924, he left the third act of his final opera Turandot incomplete. Thirty-six rough sketches of the opera’s ending survived the great composer. Puccini’s publishers and famous conductor Arturo Toscanini debated whether to leave the opera unfinished or have another composer complete the work. The decision was made to complete the opera, and Toscanini chose Franco Alfano to compose the final act.
Alfano was given a year to write Turandot’s final act, as Toscanini wanted the piece to premiere on the anniversary of Puccini’s death. Alfano hastily completed what he could, using Puccini’s drafts and incorporating his own style when the drafts were unclear or when no music existed at all. Alfano heard the complete orchestrations of the first two acts just twenty days before his own draft was due; there simply was no time for him to completely familiarize himself with Puccini’s orchestral intentions for the work.
Alfano’s final act was famously rejected by Toscanini, who cut large parts of his work. At the 1926 premiere of Turandot at La Scala, Toscanini conducted the opera until the moment of Liù’s death, then set down his baton and announced, “Here is where the opera ends, because at this point the Maestro died.” Although Toscanini and others did later conduct most of Alfano’s ending, it was not until 1982 that the piece was performed in its entirety. The complete version has since become quite popular. However, criticism of Alfano’s Turandot act has largely overshadowed his own works, which have languished in obscurity until recent years.
In the 1930s Alfano shifted his focus to orchestral works, a move that surprised his contemporaries. Alfano composed several string quartets and a second symphony before returning to opera with Cyrano de Bergerac in 1936.
The orchestrations for Cyrano de Bergerac were consciously simpler than those of Alfano’s earlier works. Alfano was interested in expressing the drama of the story through each musical moment, rather than using the plot as a mere vehicle for musical effects. The opera contains some of the most inspired passages of Alfano’s career. Cyrano de Bergerac was given a cordial reception by the opera world, and Alfano composed one more opera, Il Dottor Antonio, in 1941.
Alfano’s later orchestral works were markedly neo-classical, written in a simple and austere style. Toward the end of his life he focused on his teaching career, becoming Superintendent, and later Professor of Operatic Studies, at Palermo’s Teatro Massimo. From 1947 to 1950 he served as Director of the Liceo Musicale in Pesaro. Franco Alfano passed away in October of 1954 at the age of seventy-nine.
Alfano’s Risurrezione (1902), a verismo opera based on the novel by Leo Tolstoy, established his operatic career. The work demonstrated the promise of a talented young composer; Alfano was only twenty-eight when it premiered. It was by no means his most original or musically significant work, but it achieved great popularity, perhaps due to its stylistic similarity to the works of Puccini and Giordano.
Alfano wrote several more operas between 1902 and 1930, but most were unsuccessful. Zilah (1907) and L’ombra di Don Giovanni (1913) were faulted for their weak libretti, and the public was equally disinterested in Madonna Imperia (1927) and L’ultimo Lord (1930). However, during this difficult time of struggle and experimentation Alfano also managed to compose what is now considered his most important work, La Leggenda di Sakuntala (1921). The orchestral score was lost in World War II, but was carefully reconstructed by Alfano for its second premiere as Sakuntala in 1952. It was in Sakuntala that Alfano finally found his musical voice, synthesizing his earlier musical experiments into a masterwork.
When Puccini died in 1924, he left the third act of his final opera Turandot incomplete. Thirty-six rough sketches of the opera’s ending survived the great composer. Puccini’s publishers and famous conductor Arturo Toscanini debated whether to leave the opera unfinished or have another composer complete the work. The decision was made to complete the opera, and Toscanini chose Franco Alfano to compose the final act.
Alfano was given a year to write Turandot’s final act, as Toscanini wanted the piece to premiere on the anniversary of Puccini’s death. Alfano hastily completed what he could, using Puccini’s drafts and incorporating his own style when the drafts were unclear or when no music existed at all. Alfano heard the complete orchestrations of the first two acts just twenty days before his own draft was due; there simply was no time for him to completely familiarize himself with Puccini’s orchestral intentions for the work.
Alfano’s final act was famously rejected by Toscanini, who cut large parts of his work. At the 1926 premiere of Turandot at La Scala, Toscanini conducted the opera until the moment of Liù’s death, then set down his baton and announced, “Here is where the opera ends, because at this point the Maestro died.” Although Toscanini and others did later conduct most of Alfano’s ending, it was not until 1982 that the piece was performed in its entirety. The complete version has since become quite popular. However, criticism of Alfano’s Turandot act has largely overshadowed his own works, which have languished in obscurity until recent years.
In the 1930s Alfano shifted his focus to orchestral works, a move that surprised his contemporaries. Alfano composed several string quartets and a second symphony before returning to opera with Cyrano de Bergerac in 1936.
The orchestrations for Cyrano de Bergerac were consciously simpler than those of Alfano’s earlier works. Alfano was interested in expressing the drama of the story through each musical moment, rather than using the plot as a mere vehicle for musical effects. The opera contains some of the most inspired passages of Alfano’s career. Cyrano de Bergerac was given a cordial reception by the opera world, and Alfano composed one more opera, Il Dottor Antonio, in 1941.
Alfano’s later orchestral works were markedly neo-classical, written in a simple and austere style. Toward the end of his life he focused on his teaching career, becoming Superintendent, and later Professor of Operatic Studies, at Palermo’s Teatro Massimo. From 1947 to 1950 he served as Director of the Liceo Musicale in Pesaro. Franco Alfano passed away in October of 1954 at the age of seventy-nine.
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