Alfred Bunn
Alfred Bunn (April 8, 1796 in London – December 20, 1860 in Boulogne-sur-Mer) was an English theatrical manager. He was married to Margaret Agnes (née Somerville) Bunn, a minor actress, in 1819.
Biography
Bunn was appointed stage manager of
A longstanding quarrel with
Bunn also quarreled with the opera singer Jenny Lind, the "Swedish Nightingale", over her contract. According to Lind's biographers, Henry Scott Holland and W. S. Rockstro, the singer “was so terrified at the penalties, the law-suits, and the disgrace with which Mrs. Bunn had threatened her, that her dearest and most trusted friends could not persuade her to entertain the idea of appearing at an English theatre, under any circumstances, or upon any terms whatever."[3] The controversy was recorded by Bunn in his The Case of Bunn Versus Lind.
In 1840, Bunn was declared a bankrupt, but he continued to manage Drury Lane and the Surrey Theatre until 1848 at the age of fifty-two.[1]
Artistically, his control of his English theatres was highly successful. Nearly every leading English actor of the time played under his management, and he made an attempt to establish English opera, producing the principal works of Michael William Balfe. He had some gift for writing, and most of the libretti of these operas were translated by him. In The Stage Before and Behind the Curtain (3 vols., 1840), he gave a full account of his managerial experiences.[1]
In James Joyce's Ulysses, the main character Leopold Bloom thinks briefly (and incompletely) of a lyric Bunn wrote: "Whose smile upon each feature plays with such and such replete”. The original lyric, from the William Vincent Wallace opera Maritana, is: “Whose smile upon each feature plays with truthfulness replete".
Selected plays
- Kenilworth (1821)
- The Minister and the Mercer (1834)
References
- ^ a b c public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bunn, Alfred". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 799. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ Macready, William Charles (1912). The Diaries of William Charles Macready, 1833-1851. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. pp. 380.
- ^ Holland, Henry Scott (1891). Memoir of Madame Jenny Lind-Goldschmidt. London: John Murray. pp. 429.