Alfred Bruneau
Encyclopedia
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
– 15 June 1934, in Paris) was a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
who played a key role in the introduction of realism
Realism (dramatic arts)
Realism was a general movement in 19th-century theatre that developed a set of dramatic and theatrical conventions with the aim of bringing a greater fidelity of real life to texts and performances....
in French opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
.
As a youth, Bruneau studied the cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
at the Paris Conservatory, and played in the Pasdeloup orchestra. He soon began to compose, writing a cantata
Cantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
, Genevieve de Paris while still a young man. In 1884 his Ouverture heroique was performed, followed by the choral symphonies, Lida (1884), La belle au bois dormant (1886). In 1887, he produced his first opera, Kérim.
The following year, Bruneau met Émile Zola
Émile Zola
Émile François Zola was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism...
, 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
Le Rêve (novel)
Le rêve is the sixteenth novel in the Rougon-Macquart series by Émile Zola.The novel was published by Charpentier in October 1888 and translated into English by Eliza E. Chase as The Dream in 1893...
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
L'attaque du moulin
L'attaque du moulin is an opera in four acts by the French composer Alfred Bruneau. The libretto, by Louis Gallet, is based on a short story by Emile Zola about the Franco-Prussian War which was included in the collection Les soirées de Médan...
(1893). Zola himself wrote the libretti for the operas Messidor
Messidor (opera)
Messidor is a four-act operatic drame lyrique by Alfred Bruneau to a French libretto by Emile Zola. The opera premiered on February 19, 1897 in Paris...
(1897) and L'Ouragan (1901). Other works influenced by Zola include L'enfant roi (1905), Naïs Micoulin (1907), Les quatres journées (1916), and Lazare (produced posthumously in 1954). Other operatic works by Bruneau contained themes by Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his children's stories. These include "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," "The Snow Queen," "The Little Mermaid," "Thumbelina," "The Little Match Girl," and "The Ugly Duckling."...
(Le jardin du Paris in 1923) and Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
(Angelo, tyran de Padoue in 1928). Bruneau's orchestral works show the influence of Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
. His other works include his Requiem (1896) and two collections of songs, Lieds de France and Chansons à danser.
Bruneau was decorated with the Legion of Honor in 1895. He died in Paris in 1934.