Turandot

Puccini left Turandot unfinished when he died in Brussels in November 1924, after surgery for throat cancer; the sketches for the final duet, the scene that had blocked him for two years, ran to thirty-six pages. Franco Alfano completed the score from them under Toscanini's supervision, and Toscanini cut his work heavily. At the premiere at La Scala on 25 April 1926 he stopped the performance at the point where Puccini's writing ends, laid down the baton and turned to the audience. Alfano's ending was played from the second night.