Maria Bland

Maria Theresa Bland (1769–1838) was a British singer who enjoyed high popularity in the London theatre during the last decade of the 18th century and the first two decades of the 19th century.

Maria Bland, the daughter of Italian Jews, was born with the surname of Romanzini. The year of her birth is assumed to be historically correct, but as was common in the 18th century, the day and month went unrecorded.

She first sang at London's Drury Lane Theatre in 1786, at the age of about 17 and four years later, in 1790, married an actor named Bland. Over the following three-and-a half decades, from 1789 to 1824, she was attached to Drury Lane almost continuously, but sang also at Haymarket and Vauxhall.

Bland retired in 1824, reportedly after having developed melancholia, and died in 1838.

References

• Dictionary of National Biography