Franco Alfano

Alfano pursued private lessons under Longo, Nardis, and Serrao at Naples’s Conservatorio di S Pietro a Maiella before continuing his training in Leipzig with Jadassohn. He briefly earned a living as a pianist in Berlin. For the greater part of his professional life he served as a professor of composition and opera while also holding administrative posts at various Italian conservatories. Beyond Italy’s borders he is chiefly recalled as the musician who completed Puccini’s Turandot, yet he also built a substantial reputation through his own operas and orchestral scores. His initial acclaim arrived with Risurrezione, a work cast in the Puccini tradition. Subsequent pieces absorbed the harmonic and coloristic lessons of Debussy and Ravel, resulting in textures that ventured further in both harmony and orchestration. La leggenda di Sakuntala, widely regarded as his most significant stage score, embodies this distinctive approach. Toward the close of his career Alfano adopted a neo-classical idiom grounded in diatonic themes. He ranks among the foremost Italian composers of his generation.