Bruson made his operatic debut as the Conte di Luna in "Il trovatore" at the Teatro Lirico Sperimentale in Spoleto in 1960. The following year he was Riccardo in "I puritani" at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma in Rome. His first Metropolitan Opera appearance was as Enrico in "Lucia di Lammermoor" in 1969. In 1970 he started his collaboration with conductor Riccardo Muti in "Un ballo in maschera" in Florence. He made his debut at La Scala in 1972 as Antonio in Donizetti's "Linda di Chamonix", at the Edinburgh International Festival in 1972 as Ezio in "Attila", at Covent Garden in 1975 in the role of Renato in "Un ballo in maschera", substituting with great success for Piero Cappuccilli. He debuted at the Vienna State Opera in 1978 with "Macbeth", with such a success that the prestigious Austrian theatre awarded him with the important title of Kammersänger. In the 1980s he turned to the 18th century with Mozart's "Don Giovanni" and to Italian verismo with Umberto Giordano's "Andrea Chénier".