Alfred Bruneau

[Steve B]

Anyone heard any of his stuff?

The Marco Polo disc is uneven but has its atmospheric and melodic moments; a bit brooding:
1.Messidor:Prelude to Act 4
2. L'Attaque du Moulin-suite

[jerfilm]

His Oratorio "Lazarus" was available on Lp years ago - I'm sure out of print.

Jerry

[Alan Howe]

The Requiem's a powerful piece too - but where are the tunes?

[edurban]

In L'Attaque du moulin?  At least in the aria "Le jour tombe, la nuit va bercer les grands chenes...Adieux mes forets" recorded by Alagna on his French Opera Arias collection (which is back in print.)  Gorgeous, passionate, heart-rending stuff...and tuneful, too!

David

PS. I couldn't find a clip of the Alagna, but here is the aria sung by no less than Georges Thill with Bruneau conducting!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwiNWv-N3IA

[alberto]

I own and know the MP (as Naxos France Patrimoine) and the EMI recital by Alagna with an aria.
Interesting listening, but no masterpiece resurrected.
I remember that the MP booklet talks about Mahlerian overtones in the ballet sequence from Messidor, but that appears to me more a generalized Wagner influence common to many contemporaries.
The association with Emile Zola in several of his (about fifteen) stage works earned to Bruneau music the name "naturalism" in music (maybe also like a counterpart to "verismo"), but did not prevent his music to disappear from the stage.
Anyway I understand that his music even in France is today very seldom revived (I remember in recent years maybe one theatre reviving "l'Attaque au moulin").

[Revilod]

Complete (presumably) historical recordings of "L'Attaque du Moulin"  and  "Messidor" are available from Malibran here:

http://www.malibran.com/acatalog/BRUNEAU.html?PRODREF=639&NOLOGIN=1

Has anyone heard them or feels like forking out?

I have heard the Marco Polo disc but I can't say it made a big impression on me.  I've always been curious about Bruneau  because of his connection with Zola. I assumed  that he would be a veristic composer...a sort of French equivalent of Puccini or, at least, of Massenet in "La Navarraise" mood.  However, the textbooks always suggest that the only important French veristic opera was Charpentier's "Louise". I wonder if Bruneau is a lost cause. He does seems to have disappeared almost completely now.

[Steve B]

A lost cause? makes me like him more:)Steve

[edurban]

"....the textbooks always suggest..."

Oh, those textbooks!  No worthwhile symphonies between Beethoven and Brahms (well, Schumann, but then he was hardly at his best in large forms, the poor dear, and bless us that orchestration...)   Then there were the five Romantic piano concertos: the two Brahms', Schumann (see caveats above), Grieg (sniff) and Tschaikovsky 1 (two sniffs)  Rachmaninoff?  Oh please!  And Chopin? Di-vine piano writing, (but see all the caveats regarding Schumann.)

Yes, without textbooks, this forum would have no reason to exist.  And think of all the wonderful exploring the members would be missing!

David

[edurban]

Here is something that will help you make up your mind about Bruneau: a French Radio recording of a concert performance of Le Reve broadcast on March 15, 2003.

http://store.operapassion.com/cd5056.html
It's cheap, it's in excellent sound and the performance is first rate.  The recording doesn't list much of the cast, which included Norah Amsellem, Anna Steiger, Yann Beuron and Francoix Le Roux.  Claude Schnitzler conducted the Choeur de Radio France and the Orchestre National de France.  The music is sort of Massenet-in-his-Sapho-period: bold and dramatic and marvelously orchestrated.  Plenty tuneful, too.

Give me this over Zandonai, Cilea, or Giordano any day.

David

[rosflute]

Hi everyone _ I've just discovered your website and am pleased to say hello.
If any of you play flute, you may be interested to know that I have published a revised version of his Bruneau's Romance for flute and piano and have plans to publish more of his music. Apparently Taffanel had a large hand in the Romance's  composition which is probably why so much of it is written in the low register. It comes across as pleasant, rather unremarkable music but their are subtleties to it that are not at first apparent and that benefit from closer studies.  I own a vocal score of the Attaque du Moulin (which I enjoy) and the same qualities of quiet understatement can be seen there also.

[Revilod]

It seems as though I was wrong to suggest that Bruneau's operas have almost entirely disappeared since operapassion lists several recent continental productions, recordings of which are available on their website. We tend to think that "unsung" composers' music exists on record and is not done live. Bruneau seems to be the other way round. The big record companies (even the independents) seem to have no interest in him. A pity he didn't have one big "hit" opera so that his name is known and his other operas would then automatically be of interest.

By the way, David, you say that "Le Reve" is bold, dramatic, marvellously orchestrated and tuneful but that you're not keen on Zandonai, Cilea or Giordano. Wouldn't you say that those adjectives could equally well describe, say,  Giordano's "Andrea Chenier" or Cilea's "Adriana Lecouvreur" or "L'Arlesiana"?

[edurban]

Yep, I would, and I'm a sucker for Fedora.  I just prefer French opera.  Except Pelleas.

David

[taufiq]

Radio broadcasts of L'Ouragan and Messidor are available as flac downloads from the Musique Ouverte site:

http://i12.ch/musiqueouverte/index.php/accueil/nouveautes

[Alan Howe]

I have just received Messidor from Premiereopera Italy...
http://premiereopera.net/?s=messidor&post_type=product
Dating from 1897, it's very Wagnerian, but unfortunately it has hardly any memorable melodic material. All very strenuous and often genuinely exciting - but I'm not surprised it's remained a rarity. The performance on offer is a very good one, in excellent sound. I'm glad to have heard the opera, but I can't imagine myself wanting to repeat the experience anytime soon.

[eschiss1]

Did anyone catch his requiem when (iirc) it was broadcast sometime inbetween 2011 and 2014? He is best known for those operas but Hervey's contemporary worklist and the list of various works uploaded to his category @IMSLP suggest that his output was more diverse, whether or not it was any better than Messidor (which I have not heard, so that should be, admittedly, better or worse &c.) (Of the 21 works uploaded there, about 14 are dramatic works, it seems- 12 operas, 2 ballets. Several songs, 1 requiem, 1 symphonic poem..., one Romance for horn (or viola or cello) and orchestra (... or piano). Other works listed by Hervey in the worklist of his 1907 book "Alfred Bruneau" but not digitized/uploaded in part or in full, of course.