The Italian composer Franco Alfano was born in the neighbourhood of Posillipo, in Naples, in 1875, to a prosperous family of silver engravers. In 1891 the 16-year-old Alfano entered the Conservatorio San Pietro a Majella as a piano pupil of Alessandro Longo, a highly regarded pianist and composer with whom he also studied composition. By his third year at the conservatory Alfano felt that he needed better tutelage elsewhere, so he travelled to Leipzig to attend the famed conservatory there. He had as his composition teacher the renowned Salomon Jadassohn.

After graduation, Alfano toured Russia as a pianist in 1898. Returning to Italy, he spent several months fruitlessly trying to find suitable librettists and, failing to find publishers willing to bring out his operas, he moved to Paris in order to make a living. Alfano’s mother hailed from France, and he maintained a life-long affinity for that beacon of culture and sophistication. In 1902, the composer attended a theatrical adaptation of Tolstoy’s last major novel, Resurrection, and he instantly knew that he must create an opera based on this highly dramatic and tragic story. The opera, Risurrezione, was premiered in Turin in 1904 and was an immediate success for the composer. In fact, by 1950 the opera had achieved its thousandth performance!

Alfano wrote many more operas, including L’ombra di Don Giovanni, The Recognition of Sakuntala and La leggenda di Sakùntala. He died on 27 October 1954. His name has long been remembered for the completion of Puccini’s last opera, Turandot, but his reputation as an original composer has more recently been reassessed.

Stage Works

After earlier ballet music, written during a period in Paris, Alfano won his first operatic success with Risurrezione (‘Resurrection’), staged in Turin in 1904. He used some of his 1921 opera La leggenda di Sakùntala in his completion of Turandot. His opera, which reflects the influence of Debussy, was later reconstructed and revived under the title Sakùntala. Other operas include a version of Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac, testimony to his importance in Italian opera after Puccini.

Instrumental and Vocal Music

Alfano had recourse to the work of Rabindranath Tagore in his vocal settings. His chamber and piano music includes three string quartets, a cello sonata and a concerto for piano trio.