Biography
Joseph Carl Breil (29 June 1870 – 23 January 1926) was an American composer, lyric tenor, stage director and conductor. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he studied voice in Milan and Leipzig and performed with opera companies before turning to composition.
He was among the earliest American composers to write original scores for motion pictures. His first film score was for Les amours de la reine Élisabeth (1912). He later composed the music for D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916), as well as the preview score for The Phantom of the Opera (1925). His opera The Legend premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in 1919.
