Franco Alfano Transcending Turandot

Franco Alfano: Transcending Turandot is the first fully documented biography in any language of Italy's last verismo composer, Franco Alfano (1875-1954), who was chosen to complete Giacomo Puccini's swan song, Turandot, in 1924. Alfano remains an undervalued composer despite being one of 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 that nearly robbed him of sight. This biography finally presents 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 twentieth century. Konrad Dryden, a friend of the composer's late daughter, Nina, unravels and organizes the facts of Alfano's life, offering a chronological presentation of his vita as well as an examination of his major operas and their literary originsproviding the most complete portrait of the composer to date.

Konrad Dryden is professor of music and German at the University of Maryland University College-Europe and the author of Leoncavallo: Life and Works (Scarecrow Press, 2007).