Bruneau, (Louis Charles Bonaventure) Alfred (1857–1934)

French composer and critic. The son of a painter, he learnt music including cello from his parents, who played violin and piano, and took a cello prize at the Paris Conservatory as a pupil of Auguste Franchomme. Afterwards he studied composition with Jules Massenet and played in Jules Pasdeloup's orchestra. In 1887 he produced his first opera; the next two were based on works by Émile Zola, who himself wrote the libretti for the next three stage works. The first of these, however, failed in 1897 because Bruneau and Zola were ardent supporters of Dreyfus. After Zola's death Bruneau wrote his own libretti, some still based on Zola's work. He wrote in a style indebted to Wagner, yet softened by the gentler lyricism of the French tradition, somewhat reminiscent of Charles Gounod and Massenet.

Works Stage works operas Kérim (1887), Le Rêve and L'Attaque du moulin (after Zola, 1893), Messidor, L'Ouragan (1901) and L'Enfantroi (libretti by Zola), Lazare, Naïs Micoulin and Les Quatre Journées (after Zola), Le Tambour, Le Roi Candaule, Angélo, tyran de Padoue (1928), Virginie; ballets Les Bacchantes (after Euripides; 1931) and Le Jardin de Paradis; incidental music to his adaptation of Zola's La Faute de l'Abbé Mouret.

Vocal Requiem (1895), choral symphony Léda, La Belle au bois dormant and Penthésilée; cantata Geneviève de Paris; vocal duets; songs Chansons à danser and two books of Lieds de France (all words by Catulle Mendès).

Orchestral Ouverture héroïque for orchestra.