A composition pupil of Jules Massenet, Alfred Bruneau was largely responsible for introducing realism into French opera. His friendship with the writer Émile Zola, who shared his desire for theatrical naturalism, strongly informed his work, not least L’Attaque du moulin (‘The Attack on the Mill’), a ‘drame lyrique’. The suite includes rustic elements, but also Mascagni-like verismo beauty tempered by a Gallic palette. Bruneau was a deft orchestrator with a taste for exotic colour, and the excerpts from Messidor show the influence of Wagner on one of the most important but overlooked figures in turn-of-the-century French musical life.