composer conductor singer opera singer
He studied in Cluj, Vienna and Budapest before becoming one of the pioneers of Romanian opera - his opera Luceafărul (1921) is cited as the first opera in Romanian.
Bretan also composed over 200 lieder. In 1944, Bretan wife"s family, who were Jewish, were transported to the Nazi extermination camp at Auschwitz and murdered. He died in Cluj, aged 81.
Refusing to become a member of the Romanian Communist Party in 1948, he was not favoured by the Romanian communist regime, who treated the composer as a "non person".