Franco Alfano
eBook - PDF

Franco Alfano

Transcending Turandot

  1. 238 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Franco Alfano

Transcending Turandot

About this book

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 Based on unpublished correspondence from international archives freshly translated by Dryden, the book also sheds light on such colleagues and contemporaries as Puccini, Toscanini,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 A selection of previously unpublished photographs is included, as well as plot synopses of Alfano's operatic works.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 Liù in the world premiere recording of Turandot-and an appendix listing the composer's opus round out this important reference.

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Yes, you can access Franco Alfano by Konrad Dryden in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Media & Performing Arts & Classical Music. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Table of contents

  1. Contents
  2. Foreword
  3. Acknowledgments
  4. Archive Key
  5. Introduction
  6. Chapter 01. Posillipo—Leipzig—Miranda (1875–1896)
  7. Chapter 02. La fonte d’Enscir (1897–1899)
  8. Chapter 03. Resurrezione and Il Principe Zilah (1899–1909)
  9. Chapter 04. L’ombra di Don Giovanni (1910–1914)
  10. Chapter 05. La leggenda di Sakùntala, Tagore and Tragedy (1915–1921)
  11. Chapter 06. Turandot (1921–1925)
  12. Chapter 07. Mary Garden—Vienna—Rostand (1926)
  13. Chapter 08. Mussolini and Balzac (1927)
  14. Chapter 09. Metropolitan Opera Premiere (1928)
  15. Chapter 10. A Tale of Two Operas (1928–1929)
  16. Chapter 11. France and an American Saint (1930–1931)
  17. Chapter 12. Cyrano de Bergerac (1932–1933)
  18. Chapter 13. Palermo and Don Juan de Manara (1934–1941)
  19. Chapter 14. Wartime Phoenix (1942–1947)
  20. Chapter 15. Final Years (1948–1954)
  21. Appendix A: Opera Plots
  22. Appendix B: The Alfano Opus
  23. Bibliography
  24. Name Index
  25. About the Author