Alice Barth

[1] She was born in the St Pancras area of London in 1848, the youngest of five children of Sarah Jane née Wheeler (1810–1870) and George Harman Barth (1807–1869), who began his career as a perfumer but by 1851 was describing himself as a mesmerist, treating patients in his home.

[4] She made her début in English opera at The Crystal Palace in 1873, singing Sally Silver in Satanella and as Donna Elvira in Mozart's Don Giovanni,[1] returning there in September 1874 when she sang in an Offenbach double-bill of Vent du soir, ou L'horrible festin and Rouge et Noir.

[7] Her marriage resulted in a two-year break in her theatrical career during which she had their son Frank Usher (1876–1912), but by 1876 as 'Madam Barth' she returned to singing, firstly at the Royal Polytechnic Institution in the operetta Courtship Under Difficulties before appearing on the concert platform at the Royal Aquarium Theatre, at Freemasons' Hall, St James's Hall and the Brighton Aquarium among others, later returning to The Crystal Palace in August 1877 where she sang Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni.

She was in Guy Mannering and was Adina in L'elisir d'amore before taking part in the first English-language performance of Mozart's Der Schauspieldirektor in September 1877 which had been adapted into English as The Manager.

[4] After singing engagements in Brighton, Blackpool, Margate and Windsor among other towns, in April 1879 Barth managed a small tour of drawing room operettas including Virginia Gabriel's Widows Bewitched, which would become a popular favourite in her repertoire, and Forty Winks, an English-language adaptation of Offenbach's Une nuit blanche.

In 1880 she added The Sleeping Queen to her Company's repertoire in addition to the Garden Scene from Faust, Massé's Les noces de Jeannette (adapted as Haste to the Wedding) and Offenbach's The Rose of Auvergne.

During 1882 and 1883 the Alice Barth Opera Company toured Britain playing in such works as Quid pro Quo, The Chalet, Dr Miracle, A Fair Encounter, The Loan of a Lover, The Captain of the Guard and at times a shortened version of Il trovatore.

In 1884 she sang again in the promenade concerts at the Royal Aquarium Theatre, was Wilhelmina in Dibdin's The Waterman in a benefit performance, and with her own Company produced a new operetta, This House to Let at Brighton in June 1884.

September of that year saw Barth as co-prima donna opposite Blanche Cole with the Royal English Opera Company, singing Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, the title role in Maritana, Arline in The Bohemian Girl and Diana in The Crown Diamonds.

In early 1892 she left to appear with the Burns-Crotty Opera Company[1] for whom she sang Clorinda, daughter of Don Magnifico in La Cenerentola under the baton of Henry Wood.