03/03/1857, Paris, France – 15/06/1934, same place
French composer who played a key role in the introduction of realism in French opera. He studied the cello as a youth at the Paris Conservatory and played in the Pasdeloup orchestra. He soon began to compose, writing a cantata, Geneviève de Paris. In 1884, his Ouverture héroïque was performed, followed by the choral symphonies Léda (1884) and La Belle au bois dormant (1886). 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 (1893). Zola himself wrote the libretti for the operas Messidor (1897) and L'Ouragan (1901).
