Franco Alfano

An Italian composer, best known for completing Puccini's Turandot. He studied at the Naples Conservatory and in Leipzig, spent six years in Paris writing ballet music, and made his name with Risurrezione, after Tolstoy, at Turin in 1904. La leggenda di Sakùntala, to his own prose libretto, followed at Bologna in 1921. He directed the conservatories of Bologna and Turin, and later Pesaro's. On Toscanini's recommendation he was asked to finish Turandot from Puccini's sketches; Toscanini cut his ending heavily, and it was not heard complete until 1982. His closeness to the Fascist regime has weighed on his reputation since.