The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-04-03

r.
 he wants to know if that was New York lady afore she died,'' and what do you do with her when the minister comes?"
 The old play was very well acted yes- terday. Without either Denman Thomp- son or Archie Boyd 1t was almost per fectly played in the leading part by Ed ward l.. Snader. who had all the touches and homely rnannerisms of the original. It was an extremely clever performance and the actor wisely refrained from at- tempting any new ideas of his own, but made Melssionier-like copy of the first Uncle Joshua.
 Cy Prime was well done by Frederick Mynard and the other parts were in capable hands.
 The double quartet was excellent. l doubt if 1t was anything like equaled by the one of the long ago, led by Chauncey Olcott. In It's softer and pianissimo touches the present eight evinced delicacy sentiment and refinement. That Is well and necessary. for the singers always play a most important part in winning success for The Old Homestead
 Splendid Music Festival
 The seat sale for the Birmingham Mu- sic Festival has been in progress for a week at the Jesse French Piano Co. s store on Third avenue and a great many seats have been taken. The festival will be held at the Jefferson theatre April ,19, 20 and 21. There will be three night performances and two matinees. The Demrosch orchestra will be an attraction at each performance.
 The programmes were published in full in The Age-Herald of last Sunday.
 The first nights programe-Tuesda night. April 19-opens with Weber s "Oberon' overture and among the other features of the concert will be the sing ing of the Treble Clerf club solos by Madam Sara Anderson, one of the most distinguished dramatic sopranos in this country; brilliant work for plano and orchestra. with Mrs. Truman Adrich, Jr., of this city as the soloist.
 The Wednesday matinee opens with Beethoven's beautiful "Leonore' overture No. 8 and the entire bill is rich in or chestral numbers.
 Tschaikowsky's most delightful opera, in three acts, Eugene Onegin, will be heard Wednesday night. It will not be acted, but sung almost in it's entirety. Damroschs solo quartet will be promi- nent and a Birmingham chorus of 150 voices will sing six or seven numbers. And of course the orchestra will have an important place in the work. The or chestration is exceptionally rich.
 The Thursday matinee will be for the most part orchestral. The programme opens with 'Dvorak's New World Sym phony." The festival will close Thursday night with a splepdid Wagner pro gramme.
 ! A New York correspondent sends the following. which will be of especial in ferest to Birmingham now:
 Of the several operas written by Tschai- kowsky. Eugene Onegin' has stood first in the hearts of the composers coun- trymen Two and even three times week it has been produced at the Chark- off opera house. as often as once week In Warsaw Kieff, St. Petersburg and Moscow season after season. It was sue cessfuliy performed in London in 1892 under Henry Wood. and in Vienna, not able among other European centers, the performances drew crowded houses. 5,"Eugene Onegin,' has been the distinctly popular Eschaikowsly opera. being ap- preached only by '.Mazeppa" and The Oprichmik.". Selections from it have been sung atvarious separated intervals by concert performers in New York city and elsewhere; but the history of Eugene Onegin'' in America dates from the first of the entire opera by Walter Dan1rosch and the New Yo ork Symphony orchestra.
 i. .Tschaikowsky declared that he did not write 1t for the stage. and he described 1t in the title page as "Lyric Scenes in Three Acts.,'s
 ,An,opera on the subject of Eugene On- egin,' a. popular Novel in Verse; by the great Russian poet, Pushkin. was sug- eested to Tschafkowsky by Elizabeth An dreievna (Madame Lavrovskaya) in 1871, while he was professor of harmony at the Moscow conservatoire. This, the com poser's S7th year, was also crucial in the fact of his queer and unhappy marriage. and the events that followed it, and in the beginning of his romantic friendship with Mime. .von Meek. his benefactress and con- fidante, whom he never met in person. but from whom came the financial supp port that meant his exclusive devotion to a life of composition.
 The composer completed his work in space of two months; the orchestration was not finished until January, 1878. Push- kip's verse appealed so strongly to the composer that tfe work of Shilovsky, his intended collaborator, amounted to almost nothing; the libretto finally consisting of Punshkin's verse almost line for line. < Tschaikowsky aimed at no broadly pop ular appeal; in fact, he wrote Mime. von Meek that he composed the music from an "irresistible impulse" just as he felt with no regard for the ultimate opinion of publisher he hoped that these musical H. lustrations of .untheatrical, simple, everyday feelings and emotions' would give pleasure to all who listened.
 Yhe students Of the Moscow conserva- foirel had the honor Of giving Eugene Oneeln'' It's fret performance before q ! tI