While best known today for having composed the ending to Puccini's unfinished Turandot, Franco Alfano wrote some dozen operas, including Cyrano de Bergerac (1936) with a libretto by Henri Cain based on Edmond Rostand's drama of the same name. It is a moving tale of romantic misunderstanding, swashbuckling bravado and heartbreaking loyalty, in which the eloquent Cyrano feels unable to express his love for Roxane because of his famously protuberant nose except on behalf of his handsome but inarticulate friend, Christian.

• NAXOS
• Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia
• Plácido Domingo
• Sondra Radvanovsky
• Arturo Chacón-Cruz
• Rodney Gilfry
• Miguel Solá
• Nahuel Di Pierro
• Roberto Accurso
• Corrado Carmelo Caruso