Franco Alfano - Historical Perspectives

Historical Perspectives

Fanfare Sept/Oct 98-99 gives the following information:

Alfano's reputation suffers because:

1. 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)
2. We almost never hear everything he wrote for Turandot--the standard ending heavily edits Alfano's work.
3. 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."

Fogel: "Alfano's reputation has also suffered, understandably, because of his willingness to associate himself closely with Mussolini's Fascist government." Alex Ross, in an article in The New Yorker, 27 February 2006, pp. 84–85 notes a new ending composed by Luciano Berio premiered in 2002 --this 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.