Apollon Marie-Rose Barret was born at Saint-Brieuc in Northern France in 1804. He became a pupil of Vogt at the Paris Conservatoire, where he won First Prize for his oboe playing in 1824. He was employed as oboist at the Odéon Theatre and at the Opéra Comique, but soon moved to London, where he was appointed Principal Oboe at the Italian Opera (Covent Garden) in 1829. He continued in this position until 1874 and was also Professor at the Royal Academy of Music. He published A Complete Method for the Oboe in 1850, with a second edition in 1862. In this later version, he praises the oboes of Triébert, a firm with which he maintained contact throughout his time in London. He also advocated his own modification to the keywork, adding a low Bb key to the Triébert oboe and pioneered the use of what would become the thumb plate, standard on English oboes. After his retirement, Barret returned to France and died in Paris in 1879.

Barret was among the founders of the English school of playing. He remained a technically accomplished player well into his later years, though his tone was reedier than that favoured by the up and coming players of the time. Apart from his Method, Barret also composed a Fantaisie sur thèmes de l’Opéra “Martha” (by Flotow), a salon piece for oboe and piano published by Schott.