Franco Alfano Domingo in the title role. In 1921, "La Leggenda di Sakùntala" appeared, described by some as his most important stage work, and while it was successful enough to have Arturo Toscanini recommend Alfano for the completion of Puccini's posthumous Turandot, the performance materials were thought destroyed in an air raid during the Second World War. Alfano reconstructed it in 1952 as "Sakùntala", after "Abhijñānaśākuntalam" ("The Recognition of Sakuntala"), the Sanskrit play by Kālidāsa. Subsequently, the original version was recovered in 2005, with the two versions available for performance today. The second version of Sakùntala was performed in New York City
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