Franco Alfano: Transcending Turandot is the first fully documented
biography in any language of Italy's last verismo composer, Franco
Alfano (1875-1954), the composer chosen to complete Giacomo
Puccini's swansong, Turandot, in 1924. Alfano remains one of the
most undervalued composers, despite arguably representing the best
of Puccini's contemporaries. His ability and prowess and his
intimate friendship with Puccini, led to his selection for
Turandot's completion: a daunting, enervating, and ultimately
thankless task, which nearly robbed him of sight. This biography
finally sheds light on Alfano's view of the events, as opposed to
the all-too customary Toscanini/Puccini perspective, thereby
revealing a largely unknown facet of one of the most important
operatic works of the 20th-century. Konrad Dryden, a friend of the
composer's late daughter, Nina Alfano, sets out to unravel and
organize the facts of Alfano's life, offering a chronological
presentation of the composer's vita as well as an examination of
his major operas and their literary origins, providing the most
complete portrait of the composer to date. Based on unpublished
correspondence from international archives freshly translated by
Dryden, the book also sheds light on such colleagues and
contemporaries as Puccini, Toscanini, Mary Garden, Edward Johnson,
Giordano, Rostand, Mascagni, and Mussolini. A selection of
previously unpublished photographs is included, as well as plot
synopses of Alfano's operatic works. A foreword by the legendary
soprano Magda Olivero-his preferred interpreter and Liu in the
world premiere recording of Turandot-and an appendix listing the
composer's opus round out this important reference."
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