Alfred Bruneau

Who was Alfred Bruneau?

Louis-Charles-Bonaventure-Alfred Bruneau was a French composer who played a key role in the introduction of realism in French opera.

As a youth, Bruneau studied the cello at the Paris Conservatory, and played in the Pasdeloup orchestra. He soon began to compose, writing a cantata, Genevieve de Paris while still a young man. In 1884 his Ouverture heroique was performed, followed by the choral symphonies, Léda, La belle au bois dormant. In 1887, he produced his first opera, Kérim.

The following year, Bruneau met Émile Zola, launching a collaboration between the two men that would last for two decades. Bruneau's 1891 opera Le rêve was based on the Zola story of the same name, and in the coming years Zola would provide the subject matter for many of Bruneau's works, including L'attaque du moulin. Zola himself wrote the libretti for the operas Messidor and L'Ouragan. Other works influenced by Zola include L'enfant roi, Naïs Micoulin, Les quatres journées, and Lazare. Other operatic works by Bruneau contained themes by Hans Christian Andersen and Victor Hugo. Bruneau's orchestral works show the influence of Wagner.