Jean-Maurice Bourges

Jean-Maurice Bourges (Bordeaux, 2 December 1812 - Paris, 15 March 1881), distinguished musical critic, translator and composer who came early to Paris to study composition under Auguste Barbereau. He became joint-editor for Revue et gazette musicale de Paris from 1839, which acquired an excellent reputation in great measure owing to him.

He made a translation of the words of St. Matthew Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1843, the oratorio Paulus by Mendelssohn in 1844 and Brandus' edition of Elijah (1851), and several librettos of operas by Carl Maria von Weber until writing his own comic opera La Sultana in 1846, successfully produced at the Opéra Comique. He died in 1881, after an illness of many years.