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He was a pianist and composer born in Posillipo,
Italy. He studied harmony and
composition at the San Pietro a Majella Conservatory in Naples and took
private piano tuition. In 1885
he took further composition lessons in Leipzig and while there he wrote
many piano and orchestral pieces and also met Edvard Grieg, who was his
musical idol. He travelled widely
as a pianist and on various occasions was based in Berlin, Paris, Russia
and Italy. He wrote his first
opera Miranda in 1896, which still remains unpublished, and went on
to write many others that achieved success. The three operas he is most noted for are Risurrezione,
La Leggenda di Sakuntala and Cyrano de Bergerac. Even though he was famed for his
own works he is possibly best known for being the composer that completed Turandot
after the death of Puccini before it was finished. It has been said that by doing this
he may have harmed his career as it has been the subject of much discussion,
which took away from his own works. In 1918 he became Director of the Bologna Conservatory
and took the same position in 1923 at the Turin Conservatory. His compositions, aside from opera,
include three ballets, two symphonies, Quartets, quintets, sonatas and
numerous piano and chamber works.
He died in San Remo in
1954 aged 79.
Sources:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco_Alfano
- http://www.rodoni.ch/malipiero/alfanobioingl.html
- http://www.karadar.com/Dictionary/alfano.html
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