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
Alfredo Casella in music and influenced his own compositions profoundly. His editions of Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven's piano works, along with many others, proved extremely influential on the musical taste and performance style of Italian players in the following generations. Usually the "generazione dell'ottanta" ("generation of '80"), including Casella himself, Malipiero, Respighi, Pizzetti, and Alfano — all composers born around 1880, the post-Puccini generation — concentrated on writing instrumental works, rather than the operas in which Puccini and his musical forebears had specialised. Members of this generation were the dominant figures in Italian music after Puccini's death in 1924;