Background
John Barnett was born on the 15th of July, 1802 in Bedford, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom. Hewas the eldest son of a Prussian Jew named Bernhard Beer, who changed his surname on settling in England as a jeweller. According to some he was a cousin of the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer.
Career
John Barnett's good voice led to his being given a musical education, and he soon began writing songs and lighter pieces for the stage. In 1834 he published a collection of Lyrical Illustrations of the Modern Poets. His opera The Mountain Sylph - with which his name is nowadays most associated - received a warm welcome when produced at the Lyceum on 25 August 1834, as the first modern English opera, and was given over 100 performances, which was an unusual success.
Disappointed with his reception as a composer, Barnett retired to the country. He had a large connection as a singing-master at Cheltenham, and published Systems and Singing-masters (1842) and School for the Voice (1844).
Barnett wrote several songs for the theatre with the actor, playwright and theatre manager John Baldwin Buckstone, and also some instrumental works, including three string quartets and a violin sonata. Amongst his light music is a piece for Concertina and Piano called Spare Moments composed in 1859.
Although The Mountain Sylph is all but forgotten, it inspired parts of Gilbert and Sullivan's 1882 Savoy Opera, Iolanthe.