Svengali, a rogue, masterful musician and hypnotist seduces, dominates and exploits Trilby, a young Irish girl. Svengali promises and makes Trilby a famous singer in Paris. It was popularly believed that the hypnotic control Svengali has over Trilby was modelled after the relationship between the French harpist and composer Nicolas-Charles Bochsa and the English operatic soprano Anna Bishop.
