Savoy opera
In his 1908 autobiography, Barrington repeats a line from a first night review of his performance as Dr Daly in "The Sorcerer": "Mr Barrington is wonderful. He always manages to sing one-sixteenth of a tone flat; it's so like a vicar." Barrington went on to say that producer Richard D'Oyly Carte later came to see him, saying, "...what's the matter? ...some one has just come out of the stalls to tell me you are singing in tune. It will never do." Barrington said that "This pleased me so much that I have never sung flat since, except, of course, when I wished..." Several contemporaries did find Barrington's singing occasionally flat, including Francois Cellier. Many years later, in her memoir, Ellaline Terriss wrote: "...dear old Rutland scarcely ever did sing in tune – but how grand he was... He had a beautifully clear diction and a marvellous sense of timing – and was one of the finest singers of the then popular topical songs that our stage ever knew." Percy Hetherington Fitzgerald wrote of Barrington in his 1899 book, "The Savoy Opera", "His peculiar tranquil or impassive style has always exactly suited the characters allotted to him, and it would now be difficult to imagine a Savoy opera without him. However, Barrington's performance as Dr Daly impressed the critics and audiences, and he won a permanent place in D'Oyly Carte's company.