Alice Barth

Alice Mary Barth (25 August 1848 – 18 July 1910) was an English operatic soprano who for some years was a member of the Carl Rosa Opera Company and who during the 1880s managed her own troupe, the Alice Barth Opera Company. She was the aunt of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company performer Charles Walenn through his mother, Skene Charlotte Walenn (1837–1927), Barth's sister.

After taking lessons from Alberto Randegger among others she launched her career, appearing in burlesques, the concert platform, in operetta and oratorio. In May 1871 at the Royal Polytechnic Institution she sang Irish ballads in John Henry Pepper's production A Trip to the West Highlands of Ireland. She was to return to the Royal Polytechnic Institution frequently over the next 18 months where she became a popular favourite, on another occasion appearing there on the same bill as Pepper himself and George Grossmith. 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.

On 8 October 1874 she married civil engineer Frederick William Usher (1843–1889) at the Old Church in Saint Pancras. 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. In the Autumn of 1877 she toured with the Crystal Palace Company before returning to London with them in December that year to appear in Il matrimonio segreto. She next appeared in an English-language opera season at Her Majesty's Theatre where she appeared as Anne Chute in The Lily of Killarney before playing Arline in The Bohemian Girl. Over the next few years Barth's troupe would become well known on the southern touring circuits while also making regular appearances at The Crystal Palace and Alexandra Palace. 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.

Between engagements with her own Company Barth joined other small touring companies including that of Traverner and Walsham for whom she appeared at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden and at Hengler's promenade concerts. She sang in Elijah at Lancaster (1880) while in August 1881 she returned to her own Company in the new musical sketch Cross Purposes. When the Royal Polytechnic Institution announced it was closing Barth's Company, they played Widows Bewitched as the venue's final performances in September 1881; she was Josephine in H.M.S. Pinafore at the Alexandra Palace in November 1881. In February 1882 at Brighton Barth produced a new work for her Company, Frederick Corder's A Storm in a Teacup.

Such was her fame as a drawing room entertainer that Barth was booked by Alfred Reed and Corney Grain to appear as Arabella Upshott in the German Reed Entertainments production of The Head of the Poll at St. George's Hall. 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. Barth temporarily left her Company to play ‘Mirth, a good fairy’ in the pantomime Beauty and the Beast at the Theatre Royal in Sheffield (1883). She sang in whatever work interested her, irrespective of genre. 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 August 1894 she returned to the Carl Rosa Opera Company at the Grand Theatre, Blackpool where she played the Nurse in Roméo et Juliette by Gounod and created the role of Janet Raistrick in the world premiere of the opera Jeanie Deans by Hamish MacCunn. She toured in Hansel and Gretel by Humperdinck in which she variously played Gertrude, the children's mother and the Witch. By the time she left the company in June 1895 she had played 11 roles in 150 performances. She returned to Carl Rosa briefly in October 1895 to sing Lola in Cavalleria Rusticana at the Theatre Royal, Hanley. In the 1901 census Barth was listed as a 'Teacher of Music', and reprised her roles as the Duchess and the Red Queen in the musical Alice in Wonderland at the Prince of Wales's Theatre (1906) opposite Marie Studholme as Alice and again opposite Maidie Andrews as Alice (1907–08) at the Apollo Theatre in London.