A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Bunn, Alfred

by Henry Sutherland Edwards

BUNN, Alfred, [App. p.570 "date of his birth was probably April 8, 1796 or 1797,"] manager and dramatic author, was for a quarter of a century director, and during the greater part of that time lessee, of Drury Lane Theatre. Elliston gave him his first appointment as stage-manager of Drury Lane in 1823, when he was quite a young man; and he first obtained a certain celebrity as a manager by endeavouring some dozen years afterwards to establish an English Opera. [App. p.570 "In 1826 he was manager of the Birmingham Theatre, and in 1833 held the same post at Drury Lane and Covent Garden."] 'The Maid of Artois,' and a few years later 'The Bohemian Girl,' 'The Daughter of St. Mark,' and other operas by Balfe, were produced at Drury Lane under Mr. Bunn's management; and for the first of these works Mme. Malibran was engaged at the then unprecedented rate of £125 a night. Mr. Bunn also brought out Mr. (now Sir Julius) Benedict's 'Brides of Venice' and Vincent Wallace's 'Maritana.' For most of these operas Mr. Bunn himself furnished the libretto, which however was in every case of French origin. He was the author or adapter of a good many dramas and farces, including 'The Minister and the Mercer,' a translation of Scribe's 'Bertrand et Raton,' which, on its first production, obtained remarkable success. Long before his career as manager had come to an end [App. p.570 "In 1840"] he published a volume of memoirs, under the title of 'The Stage.' [App. p.580 "He was declared a bankrupt on Dec. 17, 1840. In later life he became a Roman Catholic, and died of apoplexy at Boulogne, Dec. 20, 1860. (Dict. of Nat. Biog.)"]

[ H. S. E. ]