Nicolae Bretan was a Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

n opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, baritone

Baritone

Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...

, conductor and music critic.

He studied in Cluj

Cluj-Napoca

Cluj-Napoca , commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade...

, Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 and Budapest

Budapest

Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...

 before becoming one of the pioneers of Romanian opera - his opera Luceafarul (1921) is cited as the first opera in Romanian

Romanian language

Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...

. Bretan also composed many lieder.

In 1944 Bretan wife's family, who were Jewish, were transported to the Nazi extermination camp at Auschwitz and murdered.

Refusing to become a member of the Romanian Communist Party

Romanian Communist Party

The Romanian Communist Party was a communist political party in Romania. Successor to the Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to communist revolution and the disestablishment of Greater Romania. The PCR was a minor and illegal grouping for much of the...

 in 1948, he was not favoured by the Romanian communist regime, who treated the composer as a "non person".

Major operatic works

• Luceafarul (1921)
• Golem
  Golem (opera)
  Golem is a one-act opera by Nicolae Bretan to his own libretto, based on the legend of the Golem as expressed in a drama by Illés Kaczér. It was written over a brief period in 1923, and was first performed in Cluj on 23 December 1924.-Roles:-Synopsis:...
  
  (1924)
• Eroii de la Rovine (1935)
• Horia (1937)
• Arald (1939)

Recordings

• "Arald" and "Golem" on Nimbus NI 5424 (1995)(Arald: Zancu, Agache, Voineag, Sandru; Golem: Agache, Dároczy, Sandru, Zancu

Both operas with the Moldavian Philharmonic Orchestra/conductor: Christian Mandeal

• "Horia" on Nimbus NI5513/14 (1997) (Cornelia Pop, Buciuceanu, Fanateanu; Bucharest National Opera Choir, Bucarest Opera Orchestra/ conductor Cornel Trailescu (live recording)
• "Luceafarul" (The Evening Star) on Nimbus NI 5463 (1996) (Voineag, Szabó, Casian; Transsylvanian Philharmonic Orchestra/conductor Béla Hary
• Requiem
  Requiem
  A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead or Mass of the dead , is a Mass celebrated for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, using a particular form of the Roman Missal...
  
  (mezzo soprano, baritone, organ) + selection from "Spiritual Songs" (baritone, piano, organ) on Nimbus NI 5584 (1999)

Sources

• The Oxford Illustrated History of Opera, ed. Roger Parker (1994)
• Booklet accompanying CD of "Arald" and "Golem" (Nimbus NI 5424 (1995))