The Idol's Eye is a comic opera in three acts with libretto by Harry B. Smith and music by Victor Herbert. It opened at the Broadway Theatre, New York, on 25 October 1897.

Dramatis Personæ

MIDI Files

ACT I   -   Officers' Quarters of an English Regiment in India.

• Overture
• No. 1 - Opening Chorus and Quartet - "Daughter of officer, M.P., or Primate, lovely patrician exotics are we..."
• No. 2 - Kiss Duet - Maraquita, Winner and Girls - "I know a blue-eyed maiden with the usual hair of gold..."
• No. 3 - Song - Don Pablo and Chorus - "In that fair isle of Cuba fair Havana, there I raise the cocoanut and the banana..."
• No. 4 - Entrance of Brahmins and Hindoo Chorus - "Who is it comes to an air Oriental? ..."
• No. 5 - Balloon Song - Abel Conn and Chorus - "I started out from Frisco on a pleasant day in June..."
• No. 6 - Song - Bedalia and Chorus - "I'm the oldest of a dozen and I'm just fifteen, and the way the world's agin me..."
• No. 7 - Song - Abel and Chorus - "Oh, talk of Tommy Atkins, Captain Jinks, and all the lot who are military heroes..."
• No. 8 - Song - Damayanti and Chorus - "She came from England's shore, a siren to adore..."
• No. 9 - Finale Act I - "Thou, thou, thou art the guilty one;  thou art responsible for the Rajah's jewel..."

ACT II   -   Interior of the Temple of the Ruby.

• No. 10 - Opening Chorus - "With dances wild, with music weird, we officiate to propitiate our deity so feared..."
• No. 11 - Song of the Priestess - "Here in the temple I've waited thee with hope and fear, waited many a year..."
• No. 12 - Song - Abel and Chorus - "Do you remember, Angeline, that heartless Human Snake who won my heart..."
• No. 13 - Finale Act II - "He speaks, he shakes, he speaks, he wakes;  he creaks, he shakes, he speaks, he wakes..."

ACT III   -   Officers' Quarters  (same as Act I).

• No. 14 - Entr'act and Opening Chorus - "We are military maidens, but our fate is rather hard..."
• No. 15 - Song - Abel and Chorus - "Talk about yo' luck, I'm 'quainted wif a coon, lige Rastus Jackson is his name..."
• No. 16 - Fairy Tales - Maraquita, Bidalia, Damayanti, Abel, Ned and Don Pablo - "You know the yarn of Puss-in-boots..."
• No. 17 - Finale Act III - "We are military maidens, but our fate is rather hard..."

External Link

Vocal Score at Musopen

American Musical Theatre

Page modified 19 December 2016