| Franco Alfano |
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| 1875 births | |
| 1954 deaths | |
| 20th century classical composers | |
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Until recent times, musical histories usually gave the year of Alfano's birth, incorrectly, as 1876 . He attended piano privately under Alessandro Longo (1864-1946), and harmony and composition respectively under Camillo de Nardis (1857-1951) and Paulo Serrao (1830-1907) at the conservatory San Pietro a Majellan in Naples. Later, after graduating in 1885 , he pursued further composition studies with Hans Sitt (1950-1922) and Salomon Jadassohn (1831-1902) in Leipzig . While working there he met his idol, Edvard Grieg , and wrote numerous piano and orchestral pieces. He completed his first opera, ''Miranda'', for which he also wrote the libretto, after a novel by Antonio Fogazzaro and which is still unpublished, in 1896 . His work ''La Fonte Di Enschir'' (libretto bij Luigi Ilca) was refused by Ricordi but was shown in Wroclaw (then Breslau) as ''Die Quelle von Enschir'' on 8 November 1898 , enjoying some success. The following three operas are usually considered as his most important:
From 1918 on, he was Director of the Conservatory of Bologna , and he directed the Turin Conservatory from 1923 . Alfano died in San Remo . ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ''Fanfare'' Sept/Oct 98-99 gives the following information: Alfano's reputation suffers because (a) he should not be judged as a composer on the basis of the task he was given in completing ''Turandot'' (La Scala, April 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." Dryden, cited supra, p. 33, adds that the project, reluctantly undertaken, resulted in "near blindness in his right eye, requiring three months spent in darkened rooms." Fogel: "Alfano's reputation has also suffered with Mascagni , understandably, because of his willingness to associate himself closely with Mussolini's Fascist government." Alex Ross, in an article in The New Yorker , February 27, 2006, pp. 84-85 notes a new ending composed by the late Luciano Berio , which he likes, and even suggests should replace the Alfano version, but this opinion remains to be tested by critical opinion. Konrad Dryden, cpo recoding of ''Cyrano de Bergerac'' gives this information. In the cpo opera set of ''Cyrano de Bergerac'', Andreas K.W. Meyer, translated into English by Susan Marie Praeder,pp. 29-30, adds LIST OF WORKS
Other works: ''Suite Adriatica''; ''Intermezzi for Strings''; ''Ninna-Nanna Partenopea''. Symphonies 1 and 2 by Barry Brenesal in the same issue of Fanfare, pp. 103-4 . EXTERNAL LINKS |
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