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The Arts Intel Report

Risurrezione, by Alfano

Jan 17–23, 2020
Piazza Vittorio Gui, 1, 50144 Firenze FI, Italy

Franco Alfano rates a footnote in operatic history for completing Turandot when death stayed Puccini’s hand—a service for which he has received more slights than applause. Yet why was he offered the assignment? Because of the considerable esteem his own operas once enjoyed. Lately, his Cyrano de Bergerac has found champions in both Plácido Domingo and Roberto Alagna. Now the versatile, well-traveled French soprano Anne Sophie Duprels assays Katiusha, the exploited maidservant turned prostitute turned battered killer of Risurrezione (Resurrection), based on Tolstoy’s little-loved final novel of structural social injustice. —M.G.