Zar und Zimmermann (Tsar and Carpenter)

by Gustav Albert Lortzing (1801 - 1851).
Komische Oper in three acts. 1837. Libretto by the composer, after the play Der Bürgermeister von Saardam, oder Die zwei Peter (The Mayor of Saardam, or The Two Peters) by Georg Christian Römer.
First performance at the Stadttheater, Leipzig, on 22nd December 1837.

CHARACTERS

Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia, baritone
Peter Ivanov, a young Russian carpenter, tenor
General Lefort, Russian ambassador, bass
Van Bett, mayor of Saardam, bass
Marie, his niece, soprano
Widow Browe, contralto
Lord Syndham, English ambassador, bass
Marquis de Chateauneuf, French ambassador, tenor

Peter the Great is working in a Dutch shipyard, under the name of Peter Michaelov. News reaches the mayor that the Tsar is working in the shipyard, but he is puzzled when he finds two Russian Peters there. Peter Ivanov is in love with the mayor's niece Marie and Van Bett thinks he must be the Tsar, promising the hand of the girl, if he will reveal his identity. The French ambassador, meanwhile, has made contact with the real Tsar, while the English ambassador and the mayor centre their flattering attentions on Ivanov. The second act brings a celebration at an inn, with the ambassadors also disguised, Syndham and Van Bett with Ivanov, and the French and Russian ambassadors in discussion with the Tsar. Van Bett's attempt to have foreigners' papers checked still solves nothing. In the third act Van Bett arranges a cantata in honour of his supposed Tsar, Ivanov, while the true Tsar, provided through Ivanov with a safe-conduct from Syndham, makes his way to the ship the English ambassador has provided, leaving Ivanov a letter to be opened once he has gone. Eventually the Tsar is revealed, sailing from the harbour, and Ivanov opens his letter, which appoints him Imperial Overseer and allows him to marry Marie.

Zar und Zimmermann (Tsar and Carpenter) remains the best known of Lortzing's operas. Van Bett is a fine comic character, his nature first established in O sancta justitia, ich müchte rasen (O sacred justice, I should like to rage). At the inn in the second act the French ambassador, distracts the company with Lebe wohl, mein flandrisch Mädchen (Farewell, my Flemish maiden). The third act brings Van Bett's comic rehearsal of his cantata and in contrast the Tsar muses on his power in Sonst spielt'ich mit Szepter, mit Krone und Stern (Once I sported with sceptre, crown and star).