Franco Alfano

Franco Alfano (8 March 1875 – 27 October 1954) was an Italian composer and pianist, best known today for his operas Risurrezione (1904), Sakùntala (1921), and Cyrano de Bergerac (1936), and for having completed Puccini’s opera Turandot in 1926. He had considerable success with several of his own works during his lifetime. Early life and training He was born Francesco Alfano on 8 March 1875 at 8:15 a.m. in Posillipo, Naples, to French-born Francesca “Fanny” (during World War I italianized to Fourcati ) and Vincenzo Alfano, a highly regarded silver engraver, whose firm, Vincenzo Alfano & Figli, was appointed to the Italian royal family. Francesco was the first of six sons and there was also one daughter. which he entered as an external student on 1 December 1891 and where he remained three years. In 1895 he pursued further composition studies with Hans Sitt and Salomon Jadassohn in Leipzig. From 1918 he was Director of the Conservatory of Bologna, from 1923 Director of the Turin Conservatory, and from 1947 to 1950 Director of the Rossini Conservatory in Pesaro. Alfano died in Sanremo. Operas Alfano completed his first opera, Miranda (unpublished), for which he also wrote the libretto