Synopsis

A loud racket is heard in the town of Padua. The Mayor, his young and pretty second wife Véronique, and his daughter, Lauretta, are awakened at 6 am. The mayor suspects that his daughter's objectionable suitor, Captain Silvio, is responsible for the disturbance. Silvio, a master of disguise, has dressed himself as Doctor Miracle, and enters the Mayor's house, claiming that he can treat every known disease in the world. The Mayor angrily sends the intruder away.

The mayor hires a new house servant, Pasquin (Silvio in another diguise). Pasquin serves a horrible omelet for the Mayor's breakfast, giving the Mayor a severe case of indigestion and sending him running out of the room. Now alone with Lauretta, Silvio removes his disguise, but the Mayor catches them in one another's arms, and kicks Silvio out of the house.

Silvio sends a letter to the Mayor revealing that the omelet that Silvio served him was poisoned. The horrified Mayor calls for Doctor Miracle. The Doctor arrives, examines the patient, and says that he can cure him, but will do nothing unless the Mayor gives the Doctor Laurette's hand in marriage. Laurette, who has already recognized Silvio in the Doctor, plays along. Thinking only about saving his life, the Mayor agrees to the arrangement. The ploy is revealed, but it is too late; the Mayor has just given his consent for Lauretta to marry Silvio.

Synopsis

Place: Paris, January 24, 1833

The newly-rich but culturally ignorant M. Choufleuri invites the upper crust of Paris to a private party and "musical soiree" (at his bourgeois drawing-room, furnished in vulgar taste) by celebrated real life Italian opera singers: soprano Henriette Sontag, tenor Giovanni Battista Rubini, and baritone Antonio Tamburini. All three become indisposed at the last minute.

In the meantime, Choufleuri's daughter, Ernestine, has been secretly seeing a young basoonist, composer and singer, Chrysodule Babylas. When she asked her father to invite the young man to the soiree, Choufleuri had refused, saying that a poor musician is not a worthy suitor for her. Now, Ernestine saves the day by impersonating Sontag and insisting that Babylas impersonate Rubini, and that Choufleuri himself masquerade as Tamburini (after all, the young couple explain, baritones don't need to speak much, they just oom-pah-pah - but Choufleuri should try to stay on key).

Despite Choufleuri's lazy and incompetent Flemish servant, Petermann, the deception works - the guests are impressed by the great "Italian" singers (who all speak in Italian accents and sing in pig-Italian), and Choufleuri rewards Babylas with his daughter's hand in marriage (especially since Babylas has demanded this, plus 50,000 Francs dowry, in order to keep quiet about the fraud).