Giacomo Puccini remained popular. "Turandot", Puccini's final opera, was left unfinished, and the last two scenes were completed by Franco Alfano based on the composer's sketches. The libretto for "Turandot" was based on a play of the same name by Carlo Gozzi. The music of the opera is heavily inflected with pentatonic motifs, intended to produce an Asiatic flavor to the music. Unlike "La fanciulla", "Turandot" contains a number of memorable stand-alone arias, among them "Nessun dorma". The libretto of "Edgar" was a significant factor in the failure of that opera. Thereafter, especially throughout his middle and late career, Puccini was extremely
Enrico Alfano the Italian newspaper "La Stampa", Alfano did spent six or seven years in prison, where he earned his initiation as a "camorrista", which gave him the "right" to demand a "tangente", protection money, from the merchants in the neighbourhood he controlled. Both sources agree that Alfano imposed his position when he defeated the Camorra head, the "capintesta" Totonno" 'o Pappagallo" (The Parrot) – so-named for his beak parrot nose – in a "zumpata" – a kind of ritual initiation knife duel – despite the fact that his adversary sent his Mastino dog to attack Alfano. The conflict started when "Pappagallo"