William Bertrand Busnach (7 March 1832, Paris – 20 January 1907, Paris)[1] was a French dramatist.[2]
Busnach was a nephew of the composerFromental Halévy. His father was associated withDavid Ben Joseph Coen Bakri, to whom France was indebted to the amount of some twenty-odd million francs for provisions furnished toNapoleon Bonaparte in Egypt. The lawsuit lasted for more than fifty years, and Busnach and his partner were not paid in full at the end. The elder Busnach, an Algerian Jew, became a naturalised Italian in the time of theDeys, and was the first interpreter of the French army. He established himself in Paris in 1835. He was ofPortuguese-Jewish descent through his mother Élisa Esther, member of theRodrigues-Henriques Family [fr].[3][4][5]
William – an Italian Jew born in France of an Algerian father, with a German surname and an English given name – was at first employed in the customs department. He subsequently devoted himself to dramatic work, writing many plays,[6] a number of which have been successful. They include:Les Virtuoses du Pavé, 1864;Première Fraîcheur, Paris-Revue, 1869;Héloïse et Abélard, with music byHenry Litolff, 1872;Forte en Gueule,La Liqueur d'Or, in collaboration withArmand Liorat, music byLaurent de Rillé 1873;Kosiki, with Liorat, music byAlexandre Charles Lecocq, 1876 and with Albert VanlooAli-Baba, 1887.
In 1867 Busnach assumed the direction of theThéâtre de l'Athénée, where several of his operettas (Fleur-de-Thé, etc.) were performed. His greatest successes he achieved, however, with his adaptation of celebrated novels for the stage; for example,L'Assommoir, 1881;Nana, 1882;Pot-Bouille, 1883, all byÉmile Zola;Le Petit Jacques, byJules Claretie, 1885;La Marchande des Quatre Saisons, etc.[7]
Busnach is also the author of the following novels:La Fille de M. Lecoq, 1886;Le Petit Gosse, 1889;Cyprienne Guérard, 1895, etc.
A chapter of Vanloo's memoirsSur le plateau, Souvenirs d'un librettiste is about Busnach, where Vanloo described his colleague as a jovial, lively man, on close terms with all Paris, and who took delight in using strong language.[8]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906)."William Bertrand Busnach".The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
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