Franco Alfano Franco Alfano Franco Alfano (8 March 1875 in Posillipo, Naples – 27 October 1954 in Sanremo) was an Italian composer and pianist, best known today for his opera "Risurrezione" (1904) and above all for having completed Puccini's opera "Turandot" in 1926. He had considerable success with several of his own works during his lifetime. Alfano was born in Posillipo, Naples. He attended piano lessons given privately by Alessandro Longo, and harmony and composition respectively under Camillo de Nardis (1857–1951) and Paolo Serrao at the conservatory San Pietro a Majella in Naples. Later, after graduating, he pursued further composition studies with
Verismo (music) earlier Italian opera. Instead, the operas were "through-composed," with few breaks in a seamlessly integrated sung text. While "verismo" operas may contain arias that can be sung as stand-alone pieces, they are generally written to arise naturally from their dramatic surroundings, and their structure is variable, being based on text that usually does not follow a regular strophic format. The most famous composers who created works in the "verismo" style were Giacomo Puccini, Pietro Mascagni, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Umberto Giordano and Francesco Cilea. There were, however, many other "veristi": Franco Alfano, Alfredo Catalani, Gustave Charpentier ("Louise"), Eugen d'Albert ("Tiefland"), Ignatz Waghalter