Franco Alfano by Teatro Grattacielo in the fall of 2013. In "Fanfare" 's issue of September/October 1998-99, it was asserted that Alfano's reputation suffers because of several things. Firstly, that 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). Secondly, that we almost never hear everything he wrote for "Turandot" since the standard ending heavily edits Alfano's work. Thirdly, [...]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
Giacomo Puccini Because only three "verismo" works by Puccini continue to appear regularly on stage (the aforementioned "Cavalleria rusticana", "Pagliacci", and "Andrea Chénier"), Puccini's contribution has had lasting significance to the genre. Both during his lifetime and in posterity, Puccini's success outstripped other Italian opera composers of his time, and he has been matched in this regard by only a handful of composers in the entire history of opera. Eleven of Puccini's operas are numbered among the 200 most-performed operas (worldwide, by composers of any nationality, as surveyed by Operabase). Three of his works ("La bohème", "Tosca", and "Madama Butterfly") rank among