Turandot (2 of 2) - Original Alfano Ending Version ("Alfano I")

This is the final part of Turandot, as originally composed by Alfano ("Alfano I").

Toscanini didn't like it and significantly redacted, reviewed and cut it. Of the Alfano I version, about three minutes were cut for performance by Toscanini and it is this shortened edited version that is usually performed in theaters (Alfano II).

Puccini died without completing Turandot. He left behind 36 pages of sketches on 23 sheets for the end of Turandot, together with instructions that Riccardo Zandonai should finish the opera. Puccini's son Tonio objected, and eventually Franco Alfano was chosen to flesh out the sketches. Alfano was chosen because his opera "La leggenda di Sakùntala" resembled Turandot in its setting and heavy orchestration.

Alfano provided a first version of the ending with a few passages of his own, and even a few sentences added to the libretto which was not considered complete even by Puccini himself. But Toscanini didn't like it and edited it. Of the Alfano I version, about three minutes were cut for performance by Toscanini and it is this shortened version that is usually performed in theaters (Alfano II).

The premiere of Turandot was at La Scala, Milan, on Sunday April 25, 1926, one year and five months after Puccini's death. It was conducted by Arturo Toscanini. In the middle of Act III, two measures after the words "Liù, poesia!", the orchestra rested. Toscanini stopped and laid down his baton. He turned to the audience and announced: "Qui finisce l'opera, perché a questo punto il maestro è morto" ("Here the opera ends, because at this point the maestro died"). The curtain was lowered slowly. Toscanini apparently never conducted the opera again.

This is "Alfano I", i.e. the version that Toscani rejected. It sounds quite loud, but it actually reflects the actual taste in Italy at that time, and it fits much better the the gap left by Giacomo Puccini before dying.

I like this version better, because it gives Calaf more time to fall in love with Turandot after the death of Liu'.

Let me know your comments! (

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Alfano
• Puccini
• Turandot
• Calaf
• Opera
• Toscanini
• Alternate
• Ending
• Franco
• Giacomo
• Aria
• Original
• Version

[GloriaJanvier]

Is the soprano Josephine Barstow?

[marcnycity]

@GloriaJanvier: yes, it's Josephine Barstow

[jashahorenstein]

Thank you for this post! Alfano's finale has been too often and unfairly criticized as full of odds about harmony and form. The version we know appears incoherent, full of hasty harmonic modulations and with a shallow treatment of Puccini's musical materials: it's full of musical nonsenses!

But in this version we can understand (and appreciate) Alfano's dramatic and musical skill... And, unfortunately, Toscanini's guilty operation of cuts and bad adjustments.

We have to say sorry to Alfano!

[mannail888]

A thousand times preferable to the cranky Toscanini approved version.

[lido2008ve]

Non ho mai apprezzato l'arbitrio con cui Toscanini, ha volontariamente "saccheggiato" la musica di Alfano, sia per la mancanza di rispetto verso il musicista, sia perché il finale di Alfano rende il capolavoro pucciniano molto più completo. Purtroppo Toscanini a quei tempi "imperava" e si poteva permettere qualsiasi "sgarbo", a iniziare da quello fatto a Giacomo Lauri Volpi, escludendolo dalla "prima" (come invece avrebbe voluto lo stesso Puccini) preferendogli Miguel Fleta.

[QueCosaSiempre]

At 8:50... LA VENDETTA DI LIU !!! (Thriller time)

[LeptitFrantz1]

I was bowled over! Absolutely unsurpassable, except of course by Puccini himself, if cruel fate had decided otherwise!!

[TheBasilio]

se siente la musicalidad italiana de su epoca.... gracias Alfano

[TheBasilio]

Ahora se siente la humanizacion de turandot... ni puccini ni alfano habrian repetido el tema de nesun dorma de forma literal.... eso es un capricho de toscanini...

[bence778]

Wow, amazing, even if I prefere the original version, I love that one too. Thanks very very much for the upload