THE LILAC DOMINO Der lila Domino Operetta in 3 acts: Libretto by Emmerich von Gatti and Béla Jenbach; Music by Charles Cuvillier : Stadttheater, Leipzig, 3 February, 1912 English version by Harry and Robert Smith with additional songs by Howard Carr & Donovan Parsons. Revised 1953 version by H.F. Maltby : 44th Street Theatre, New York - October 28, 1914 Additional dialogue by S.J. Adair Fitzgerald; additional musical numbers by Howard Carr and Donovan Parsons; Empire Theatre, London - February 21, 1918 (747 perfs) SYNOPSIS Three young men have lost heavily at cards, so heavily that they agree one must wed an heiress wealthy enough to keep them all in chips. The Lilac Domino tells how they fare in their quest. STORY ACT 1 It is gala night at the Hôtel Parnasse in Nice, and a masquerade is in progress. Guests are gathered in a lounge leading to the ballroom, when a girl runs in excitedly with the news that the wealthy old Lyon silk merchant Gaston Le Sage has found himself a young widow as his third wife. Le Sage enters with his young bride-to-be, Léonie, but, although he fusses around her attentively, she seems to be more interested in his nephew, Paul Dorien. Gaston promised Paul's mother, Gaston's late step-sister, that Paul would eventually be married to Gaston's own daughter, Georgine. The two are due to be reunited the following day after some years apart, but Paul seems to have no great interest either in women in general or Georgine in particular. Léonie, however, attempts to bring the boy out a little, offering him advice from her own experience. Elsewhere in the lounge are to be found a couple of expatriate Englishmen — Major Montague Drake, a dapper, regimental type, and a young man named Bertie Raymond. Both of them are somewhat down on their luck and they have to struggle from day to day to finance their gambling interests. They are hoping that their friend Jack Allison may have succeeded in raising more cash, but he is currently putting his gambling interests to one side in favour of the pursuit of romance. Jack is, in reality, the Duke of Everset, but he has chosen to hide his aristocratic identity since he settled on the Riviera because of the way prices are put up when a titled gentleman approaches. Georgine, Gaston's eighteen-year-old daughter, appears accompanied by Madame Delcasse, the principal of her finishing school. Madame Delcasse is evidently concerned to keep Georgine on the straight and narrow and she has only agreed to attend the masquerade under pressure from Georgine herself. Georgine is determined to enjoy the champagne that is flowing freely, and to see what fate may produce for her in the form of a mate. She promises Madame Delcasse that she will not remove her mask and she is unrecognisable under her domino when Gaston and Paul come upon her and begin chatting. She conjures up an air of mystique as she introduces herself to them merely as the Lilac Domino. Drake, Bertie Raymond and Jack Allison reappear. Jack has now lost all his remaining money, but a possible remedy for their troubles is at hand. When they seek solace in music from the gipsy orchestra, the leader Krovani reveals himself as a representative of a matrimonial agency and produces a list of wealthy ladies seeking husbands. The three friends reckon that they are on to a winner when they find on the list a young
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