Franco Alfano (8 March 1875 – 27 October 1954) was an Italian composer and
pianist
A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...
, best known today for his opera ''
Risurrezione
''Risurrezione'' (''Resurrection''), is an opera or ''dramma'' in four acts by Franco Alfano. The libretto was written by Camillo Antona Traversi and Cesare Hanau (only Hanau signed it), based on the 1899 novel ''Resurrection'' (russian: Воск ...
'' (1904) and for having completed
Puccini
Giacomo Puccini ( Lucca, 22 December 1858Bruxelles, 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long ...
's opera ''
Turandot
''Turandot'' (; see below) is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, posthumously completed by Franco Alfano in 1926, and set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. ''Turandot'' best-known aria is " Nessun dorma", ...
'' in 1926. He had considerable success with several of his own works during his lifetime.
Career
![Franco Alfano circa 1919 Emporium](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Franco_Alfano_circa_1919_Emporium.jpg)
Alfano was born in
Posillipo
Posillipo (; nap, Pusilleco ) is an affluent residential quarter of Naples, southern Italy, located along the northern coast of the Gulf of Naples.
From the 1st century BC the Bay of Naples witnessed the rise of villas constructed by elite Roma ...
,
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
. He attended piano lessons given privately by
Alessandro Longo
Alessandro Longo (31 December 1864 – 3 November 1945) was an Italian composer and musicologist.
Early life
Longo was born in Amantea. After studying at the Naples Conservatory under Beniamino Cesi (and composition under Paolo Serrao), he ...
, and harmony and composition respectively under
Camillo de Nardis (1857–1951) and
Paolo Serrao at the
Conservatory San Pietro a Majella in Naples. Later, after graduating, in 1895 he pursued further composition studies with
Hans Sitt
Hans Sitt (born Jan Hanuš Sitt on 21 September 1850, Prague – 10 March 1922, Leipzig), was a Bohemian violinist, violist, teacher, and composer. During his lifetime, he was regarded as one of the foremost teachers of violin. Most of the orches ...
and
Salomon Jadassohn
Salomon Jadassohn (13 August 1831 – 1 February 1902) was a German pianist, composer and a renowned teacher of piano and composition at the Leipzig Conservatory.
Life
Jadassohn was born to a Jewish family living in Breslau, the capital of the ...
in
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
. While working there he met his idol,
Edvard Grieg
Edvard Hagerup Grieg ( , ; 15 June 18434 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the foremost Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide. His use of ...
, and wrote numerous piano and orchestral pieces.
From 1918 he was Director of the Conservatory of
Bologna
Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...
, from 1923 Director of the
Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
Conservatory, and from 1947 to 1950 Director of the
Rossini Conservatory in
Pesaro. Alfano died in
San Remo.
Operas
Alfano completed his first opera, ''Miranda'' (unpublished), for which he also wrote the libretto based on a novel by Antonio Fogazzaro, in 1896. His work ''La Fonte di Enschir'' (libretto by
Luigi Illica
Luigi Illica (9 May 1857 – 16 December 1919) was an Italian librettist who wrote for Giacomo Puccini (usually with Giuseppe Giacosa), Pietro Mascagni, Alfredo Catalani, Umberto Giordano, Baron Alberto Franchetti and other important Italian co ...
) was refused by
Ricordi
Ricordi may refer to:
People
*Giovanni Ricordi (1785–1853), Italian violinist and publishing company founder
* Giulio Ricordi (1840–1912), Italian publisher and musician
Music
*Casa Ricordi, an Italian music publishing company established i ...
but was presented in
Wrocław
Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...
(then Breslau) as ''Die Quelle von Enschir'' on 8 November 1898. It enjoyed some success.
There followed the opera ''
Risurrezione
''Risurrezione'' (''Resurrection''), is an opera or ''dramma'' in four acts by Franco Alfano. The libretto was written by Camillo Antona Traversi and Cesare Hanau (only Hanau signed it), based on the 1899 novel ''Resurrection'' (russian: Воск ...
'' in 1904. It was based on
Tolstoy
Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...
, and was later sung by
Magda Olivero
Magda Olivero (née Maria Maddalena Olivero) (25 March 1910 – 8 September 2014), was an Italian operatic soprano. Her career started in 1932 when she was 22, and spanned five decades, establishing her "as an important link between the era of th ...
.
''
Cyrano de Bergerac
Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac ( , ; 6 March 1619 – 28 July 1655) was a French novelist, playwright, epistolarian, and duelist.
A bold and innovative author, his work was part of the libertine literature of the first half of the 17th cen ...
'' followed. This based on the famous
play
Play most commonly refers to:
* Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment
* Play (theatre), a work of drama
Play may refer also to:
Computers and technology
* Google Play, a digital content service
* Play Framework, a Java framework
* P ...
by
Edmond Rostand and composed to the French libretto by
Henri Cain
Henri is an Estonian, Finnish, French, German and Luxembourgish form of the masculine given name Henry.
People with this given name
; French noblemen
:'' See the ' List of rulers named Henry' for Kings of France named Henri.''
* Henri I de Mon ...
. It had its Italian premiere in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
in January 1936 and its French premiere in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
four months later. It was recently revived by the
Kiel Opera (Germany), the Montpellier Radio Festival (France) and the
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is oper ...
,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, starring
Plácido Domingo
José Plácido Domingo Embil (born 21 January 1941) is a Spanish opera singer, conductor, and arts administrator. He has recorded over a hundred complete operas and is well known for his versatility, regularly performing in Italian, French ...
in the title role.
In 1921, ''
La Leggenda di Sakùntala
LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States.
La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music
* La (musical note), or A, the sixth note
* "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on Figure 8 ( ...
'' appeared, described by some as his most important stage work, and while it was successful enough to have
Arturo Toscanini recommend Alfano for the completion of
Puccini
Giacomo Puccini ( Lucca, 22 December 1858Bruxelles, 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long ...
's posthumous
Turandot
''Turandot'' (; see below) is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, posthumously completed by Franco Alfano in 1926, and set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. ''Turandot'' best-known aria is " Nessun dorma", ...
, the performance materials were thought destroyed in an air raid during the Second World War. Alfano reconstructed it in 1952 as ''
Sakùntala'', after ''
Abhijñānaśākuntalam
''Abhijnanashakuntalam'' (Devanagari: अभिज्ञानशाकुन्तलम्, IAST: ''Abhijñānaśākuntalam''), also known as ''Shakuntala'', ''The Recognition of Shakuntala'', ''The Sign of Shakuntala'', and many other variant ...
'' (''The Recognition of Sakuntala''), the
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
play by
Kālidāsa. Subsequently, the original version was recovered in 2005, with the two versions available for performance today. The second version of Sakùntala was performed in New York City by
Teatro Grattacielo in the fall of 2013.
Historical perspectives
In ''Fanfare''s issue of September/October 1999, it was asserted that Alfano's reputation suffers because of several things. Firstly, that he should not be judged as a composer on the basis of the task he was given in completing ''Turandot'' (La Scala, 25 April 1926). Secondly, that we almost never hear everything he wrote for ''Turandot'' since the standard ending heavily edits Alfano's work. Thirdly,
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".
"Alfano's reputation has also suffered
C:along with Mascagni understandably, because of his willingness to associate himself closely with Mussolini's Fascist government."
Alex Ross, in ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', notes that a new ending of ''Turandot'' composed by
Luciano Berio
Luciano Berio (24 October 1925 – 27 May 2003) was an Italian composer noted for his experimental work (in particular his 1968 composition ''Sinfonia'' and his series of virtuosic solo pieces titled '' Sequenza''), and for his pioneering work ...
premiered in 2002 is preferred by some critics for making a more satisfactory resolution of Turandot's change of heart, and of being more in keeping with Puccini's evolving technique.
List of works
*1896 ''Miranda'' Opera
*1898 ''La Fonte di Enschir'' Opera
*1899 ''Four Romanian Dances'' for piano
*1901 ''Napoli'' Ballet
*1901 ''Lorenza'' - Ballet
*1904 ''
Risurrezione
''Risurrezione'' (''Resurrection''), is an opera or ''dramma'' in four acts by Franco Alfano. The libretto was written by Camillo Antona Traversi and Cesare Hanau (only Hanau signed it), based on the 1899 novel ''Resurrection'' (russian: Воск ...
'' Opera ''
*1909 ''Suite Romantica'' for orchestra (became ''Eliana'') ''
*1909 ''Il principe di Zilah'' - Opera''
*1910 ''Symphony n. 1 in E major, Classica'' ''
*1910 ''I Cavalieri e la Bella'' Opera (never completed) ''
*1914 ''L'ombra di Don Giovanni'' Opera (later Don Juan de Manara) ''
*1918 ''Tre poemi'' by Tagore for voice and piano ''
*1918 ''Quartet n. 1'' for strings ''
*1919 ''Six songs'' for voice and piano ''
*1919 ''Tre Poemi di Tagore'' for voice and piano ''
*1921 ''
La Leggenda di Sakùntala
LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States.
La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music
* La (musical note), or A, the sixth note
* "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on Figure 8 ( ...
'' Opera ''
*1923 ''Eliana'' Ballet from ''Suite Romantica'' ''
*1923 ''Sonata in D'' for violin and piano ''
*1925 ''Sonata'' for cello and piano ''
*1926 ''
Turandot
''Turandot'' (; see below) is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, posthumously completed by Franco Alfano in 1926, and set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni. ''Turandot'' best-known aria is " Nessun dorma", ...
'' finale Opera ''
*1926 ''Quartet n. 2'' for strings ''
*1927 ''Madonna Imperia'' Opera ''
*1928 ''Tre Liriche di Tagore'' for voice and piano ''
*1929 ''Three Lyrical Poems of Tagore'' for voice and piano ''
*1930 ''L'ultimo Lord'' Opera semiseria, libretto by
Ugo Falena
Ugo Falena (25 April 1875 in Rome – 20 September 1931 in Rome) was an Italian silent film director and occasional opera librettist. His films include ''Otello'' (1909), ''Beatrice Cenci'' (1911), ''William Tell'' (1911), ''Romeo and Juliet'' ...
''
*1930 ''Himno al Libertador'' dedicated to Simon Bolivar ''
*1932 ''Concerto for Violin, Cello and Piano''
*1933 ''Vesuvio'' Ballet ''
*1933 ''Symphony n. 2 in C major'' ''
*1935 ''Divertimento'' for piano and chamber orchestra ''
*1936 ''Nuove Liriche Tagoriane'' for voice and piano ''
*1936 ''
Cyrano de Bergerac
Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac ( , ; 6 March 1619 – 28 July 1655) was a French novelist, playwright, epistolarian, and duelist.
A bold and innovative author, his work was part of the libertine literature of the first half of the 17th cen ...
'' Opera ''
*1939 ''Tre Nuove Liriche'' ''
*1941 ''Don Juan de Manara'' Opera ''
*1943 ''E' Giunto il Nostro Ultimo Autunno'' for voice and piano''
*1945 ''Quintet in A flat Major'' for Piano and String Quartet''
*1947 ''Sette Liriche'' for voice and piano''
*1948 ''Cinque Nuove Liriche Tagoriane'' for voice and piano ''
*1949 ''
Il Dottor Antonio'' Opera ''
*1949 ''Quartet No 3 in g minor'' for strings''
*1950 ''Vesuvius'' Opera for radio (from ''Vesuvius'') ''
*1952 ''
Sakùntala'' Opera (reconstruction now superseded by the original 1921 score, discovered in 2006 in the Ricordi archives)''
*1953 ''Sinfonia Classica'' from Symphony n. 1
*Other works:
**''Suite Adriatica'';
**''Intermezzi for Strings'';
**''Ninna-Nanna Partenopea''.
See also
List of operas by Franco Alfano.
Recordings
Operas
*''Cyrano de Bergerac'';
William Johns
William Johns (born 2 October 1936) is an American tenor who sang leading roles in the opera houses of Europe and the United States in a career spanning more than 25 years. Several of his live performances in Germany and Italy during the 1970s hav ...
, Olivia Stapp, Gianfranco Cecchele, Miti Truccato Pace, Ezio Di Cesare, Alfredo Giacomotti - Director: Maurizio Arena - Orchestra RAI di Torino - Live - 2 CD Opera d'Oro IOD (2004);
*''Cyrano de Bergerac'';Plácido Domingo, Sondra Radvanovsky, Arturo Chacón-Cruz, Rodney Gilfry; Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana; conductor Patrick Fournillier; Filmed at the Palau de les Ars 'Reina Sofia', Valencia, 8,11 & 18 February 2007; DVD; EAN 0747313527052
*''Resurrezione'';
Magda Olivero
Magda Olivero (née Maria Maddalena Olivero) (25 March 1910 – 8 September 2014), was an Italian operatic soprano. Her career started in 1932 when she was 22, and spanned five decades, establishing her "as an important link between the era of th ...
, Giuseppe Gismondo, Nucci Condò, Anna Di Stasio - Director: Elio Boncompagni - Live - 2 CD Opera d'Oro IOD (2003);
*''Sakùntala''; Sakùntala:
Celestina Casapietra
Celestina Casapietra (born 23 August 1938) is an Italian operatic soprano who was a member of the Berlin State Opera for decades. She made an international career, and recorded several operas and concerts.
Life and career
Born in Genoa, Casapi ...
– Il re:
Michele Molese – Prijamvada:
Laura Didier Gambardella – Anusuya:
Adriana Baldiseri – Kanva:
Aurio Tomicich – Durvasas:
Ferruccio Mazzoli – Harita:
Mario Rinaudo – Il giovane eremita:
Ezio Di Cesare – Lo scudiero:
Carlo Micheluzzi
Carlo Micheluzzi (1886–1973) was an Italian stage and film actor
An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such ...
– Un pescatore:
Vincenzo Tadeo – Una guardia:
Alberto Caruzzi;
Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro di Roma della Rai, director:
Ottavio Ziino
Ottavio Ziino (11 November 1909 – 1 February 1995) was an Italian composer, conductor and academic.
Life and career
Born in Palermo, Ziino graduated in composition from the Palermo Conservatory, and specialized at the Accademia Nazionale di S ...
CD Tryphon TRC-9612;
*''Liriche da Tagore''; Duo Alterno:
Tiziana Scandaletti,
soprano
A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...
-
Riccardo Piacentini,
pianoforte
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
CD Nuova Era 7388 (Torino 2004).
Other compositions
*Sonata for Cello and Piano, 1925: Samuel Magill (cello); Scott Dunn (piano). CD: Naxos, 2009 (World premiere recording)
*Concerto for Violin, Cello and Piano, 1932: Elmira Darvarova (violin); Samuel Magill (cello); Scott Dunn piano. CD: Naxos, 2009 (World premiere recording
)
*Sonata for Violin and Piano, 1923: Elmira Darvarova (violin); Scott Dunn (piano). CD: Naxos, 2011 (World premiere recording)
*Piano Quintet, 1945: Elmira Darvarova (violin); Mary Ann Mumm (violin); Craig Mumm (viola); Samuel Magill (cello); Scott Dunn (piano). CD, Naxos, 2011 (World premiere recording)
References
Notes
Further reading
*
Dryden, Konrad (2010) ''Franco Alfano: transcending Turandot''. Lanham MD: Scarecrow Press
*Posillipo—Leipzig—Miranda (1875–1896) -- La fonte d'enscir (1897–1899) -- Resurrezione and Il principe Zilah (1899–1909) -- L'ombra di Don Giovanni (1910–1914) -- La leggenda di Sakùntala, Tagore and tragedy (1915–1921) -- Turandot (1921–1925) -- Mary Garden—Vienna—Rostand (1926) -- Mussolini and Balzac (1927) -- Metropolitan Opera premiere (1928) -- A tale of two operas (1928–1929) -- France and an American saint (1930–1931) -- Cyrano de Bergerac (1932–1933) -- Palermo and Don Juan de Manara (1934–1941) -- Wartime phoenix (1942–1947) -- Final years (1948–1954) -- Appendix A: Opera plots—Appendix B: The Alfano opus.
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alfano, Franco
1875 births
1954 deaths
19th-century classical composers
19th-century Italian male musicians
20th-century classical composers
20th-century Italian composers
20th-century Italian male musicians
Italian ballet composers
Italian classical composers
Italian fascists
Italian male classical composers
Italian opera composers
Italian Romantic composers
Male opera composers
Members of the Royal Academy of Belgium
Musicians from Naples
Pupils of Salomon Jadassohn