Alfredo Catalani obtained his baccalaureate in 1871, his parents then pushed him to pursue higher education, but he had a passion for music. He had learned the piano. From his youth, he deepened the foundations of harmony and counterpoint at the Lucca Music Institute, directed by Fortunato Magi, uncle of Giacomo Puccini and fellow student of his father, who subjected the gifted child to constant discipline and rigorous. A mass in E minor for four mixed voices and orchestra, composed between the fall of 1871 and the spring of the following year was played (according to an old tradition of Lucca) under the direction of Alfredo, on June 9, in the cathedral : it was his debut in public, even before his admission to the Institute of Music. This piece is also the only sacred composition of the musician.

A symphony in F major in a single movement (which reveals the limits in this genre of the composer) was performed with a Romance for baritone and orchestra under the direction of the author in July 1872, when he completed his studies at the Institute and obtains the first price of counterpoint and composition. The concert had been organized on the occasion of the prize distribution and was a great success, perhaps the only one, awarded by its place of birth.

In 1872 Alfredo went to study in Paris where he attended the conservatory as a simple listener. Admitted without exam, he studied composition with François Bazin and the piano with Antoine-François Marmontel.

Returning to Lucca for the revision council, he was reformed there for his weak constitution. He then entered the Milan Conservatory where he had composition professor Antonio Bazzini.

In his early years in Milan, Catalani composed a lot of music from various genres. Arrigo Boito offered him his libretto, an "oriental ecclesiastical" in one act La Falce, to be set to music as the last essay at the end of the lessons at the Milan Conservatory.

After various adventures, the opera was presented to the Theater Academy in August 1875 under the direction of the composer himself. The score was published in 1876 and brought in some money for the composer.

His work, influenced by Italian opera, also owes to French lyric opera (he also studied in Paris) and German romantic opera. Puccini eclipsed him, asserting himself completely in the truth that Catalani had sketched out (The Wally takes place in the Tyrolean Alps).

Two of his operas were successful: Loreley (1890) and La Wally, premiered in Milan in 1892, whose aria is the central theme of the film Diva by Jean-Jacques Beineix. Catalani was also the author of a four-voice mass.

In 1893, he died of tuberculosis (hemoptysis).