composer influential in the movement toward realism in French opera.

A pupil of the French opera composer Jules Massenet at the Paris Conservatoire, Bruneau later worked as a copyist to the publisher Georges Hartmann. His earliest works included three choral symphonies and an opera, Kérim (1887). In 1888 he met the novelist Émile Zola (Zola, Émile), who became a close friend and whose works provided the librettos for eight operas. The first, Le Rêve (1891), was considered too Wagnerian, but Messidor (1897) and L'Ouragan (1901) displayed Bruneau's original dramatic gifts. In L'Attaque du moulin (1893; after Zola's Soirées de Médan) and in the incidental music for Zola's Faute de l'abbé Mouret (1907), he achieved his goal that music “should be both realistic and symbolical.”

Political rather than musical reasons accounted for the failure of L'Enfant-roi (1905) and Naïs Micoulin (1907), Bruneau having supported Zola in the conflicts that arose from the Dreyfus case. After Zola's death in 1902 Bruneau's works included the ballets Les Bacchantes (1912) and L'Amoureuse Leçon (1913) and the operas Angelo (1928) and Virginie (1931). He also wrote music criticism for Gil Blas, Le Figaro, and Le Matin and published books on contemporary French and Russian music. His works were widely performed during his lifetime. His music is noted for its dramatic aptness, and he frequently used unconventional dissonances for dramatic effect. His works also include a Requiem (1896) and songs.