Eva

• Original Broadway Production (1912)
  New York, NY

Click on the title for info on the song.

Original score

• Opening Chorus (We'll the new master greet)
• The Voice of Paris
  • aka A country mouse I ne'er could be [no note]
  • aka Duet: The Voice of Paris [no note]
• Vision Song
  • aka The night winds were sighing [no note]
• Love Is a Pilgrim
  • aka Love Is a Pilgrim (Waltz Song) [no note]
  • aka Nevermore we'll meet [no note]
• Joy and Glass
  • aka Glass like this [no note]
  • aka Trio: Joy and Glass [no note]
• Finale (You are the foster father)
• Opening Chorus (Let us whirl, swirl, twirl)
• The Starlight Guards
  • aka March Octette: The Starlight Guards [no note]
  • aka We Starlight Guards [no note]
• Life Is a Masquerade
  • aka If to Paris I should go [no note]
  • aka Trio: Life Is a Masquerade [no note]
• Duet?Cinderella
  • aka Cinderella [no note]
  • aka So unreal does this seem [no note]
• Finale (To what I say, attention pay)
• The Unrepentant Butterfly
  • aka In gold and purple [no note]
• The Imp of Montmartre
  • aka Duet: The Imp of Montmartre [no note]
  • aka When comes the time of night [no note]
• The Quarrel Duet
  • aka Do you really dare to face me? [no note]
• Finale (Octave, I love you so!)
• On the Day I Marry
• The Up-to-Date Troubadour

Based on the Viennese operetta Eva [Das Fabriksmädel], by Franz Lehár, Robert Bodanzky and A. M. Willner.

The operatives of a Belgian glass factory have adopted as their daughter the beautiful Eva, an orphan. Octave Flaubert, a young Parisian rounder of the worst type, inherits the works and comes out for an inspection. Eva is selected to read the address of welcome—which Voisin, the factory manager, has written—to Octave, who is captivated by her and immediately determines to possess her.

The next evening, Octave gives a gay ball to a party of Parisian friends. Eva has stolen out and is caughting peeping in at the window. Octave persuades her to come in, and she is dressed in a frock belonging to Ellie (one of the Parisian dancers there) and forced to participate in the decidedly riotous pleasures of the evening.

The factory operatives—headed by old Larousse, who trailed Eva to Octave's mansion—appear in a maddened mob. Larousse rebukes Octave and is put off the grounds. Fearful that Eva's honor is at stake, the mob demands the return of the girl to them. Octave tells the mob that he is going to marry her. This satisfies them, and they withdraw.

Eva also believes what Octave has said, but afterward she discovers that he intends to substitute a pearl necklace and a gay farewell for a wedding ring.

Ashamed and heartbroken, Eva runs away to Paris and apprentices herself to a milliner. She is sent to deliver a hat to Ellie one snowy afternoon. Eva arrives at Ellie's house wet and chilled. Ellie is giving a reception, at which Octave is present. Ellie dislikes the hat, and while scolding about it, gives it to Eva, at the same time throwing a magnificent cloak about the shoulders of the shivering girl. 

Octave unexpectedly enters, and catching sight of Eva thus resplendent, recoils from her, thinking she has strayed onto the primrose path. He has not been able to forget her during the five months that have passed since he last saw her. Although he had been unwilling to marry her, he has felt sure that she would remain as pure and innocent as he had known her. He starts to reproach her, but Eva throws off the finery and stands before him in her cheap, soaked clothing. Octave, repentant and with a hurt bursting with love, begs her to marry him. Forgiving him, she assents happily.

(Source: Adapted from the synopsis in the "Little Stories of the New Plays" section of The Green Book Magazine, 1913.)