John Barnett
(b Bedford, 15 July 1802; d Leckhampton, 16/17 April 1890). English composer. He studied the piano and composition, producing early piano sonatas, songs, masses and a grand scena and much light incidental music. His most important work, The Mountain Sylph, was produced for S. J. Arnold's new English Opera House in 1834. It replaced the customary spoken dialogue with recitative (thus being one of the first through-composed English operas), used fresh musical forms and, recalling Weber's music, succeeded in creating strong emotion and real dramatic tension; it had a long initial run and held the stage for the rest of the century. He wrote two further serious operas for Drury Lane but none of his later stage works repeated this success. He also wrote distinctive songs and an inventive string quartet. Quarrels with managers, failed attempts to establish a permanent English opera and a generally irascible disposition finally led to Barnett's withdrawal from the London stage in 1841, when he became a singing teacher in Cheltenham.
