Alice Barnett
[2][4] She sang in oratorios such as Mendelssohn's Elijah,[6] Rossini's Stabat Mater,[7] and Handel's Messiah,[8] as well as concerts of ballads and other lighter repertoire.
[12] Barnett travelled with W. S. Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan and Carte to New York City for the company's production there of Pinafore, beginning 1 December 1879.
[16] Gilbert wrote these formidable characters with Barnett's imposing physical presence in mind, including such self-referential lines for Jane as "not pretty, massive!
"[19] The review of Iolanthe in The London Figaro said that Barnett, "a fairy queen of Brobdingnagian proportions, who 'nestles in a nutshell and gambols on gossamer,' invested her part with all the broad humour necessary without overdoing it.
[24] London's The Era noted, "Reports received lately from Australia are so full of the praises of Miss Alice Barnett in her Gilbert and Sullivan impersonations that her appearance … promises to be one of the events of the season.
"[25] She also appeared as Martha in Faust,[2] Mrs. Privett in Alfred Cellier's Dorothy (with Leonora Braham in the title role),[26] Eliza Dabsey in Billee Taylor,[27] and the Princesse de Gramponeur in Erminie.
The following year, she toured the British provinces as Martha in Auguste van Biene's production of the Gaiety burlesque Faust up to Date,[33] in which The Era found her "inimitable".
[37] "Miss Alice Barnett, as the mighty Dame Hecla, fulfilled the promise of her name, bursting out into flame at the slightest provocation … excruciatingly funny.
"[38] After a brief run at the Gaiety Theatre as a replacement in the role of Ada Smith in The Shop Girl, in the summer of 1895,[39] Barnett again travelled to America, where she toured in His Excellency with George Edwardes's Lyric Company.
[17] In 1896, she returned to England, touring in The Telephone Girl, by Augustus Harris, F. C. Burnand and Gaston Serpette,[40] after which her husband, John Thanet Dickens, died at their house in south London in August 1896.
[43] In 1898, Barnett toured the British provinces as Becky Blisset in Billy by Adrian Ross and Osmond Carr, starring with Little Tich.
