Zar und Zimmermann

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Zar und Zimmermann (Tsar and Carpenter) is an opera in three acts, music by Albert Lortzing, libretto by the composer after Georg Christian Römer's Der Bürgermeister on Saarlem, oder Die zwei Peter, itself based on a French work entitled Le Bourgesmestre de Sardam, ou Les deux Pierres by Anne-Honoré-Joseph Duveyrier de Mélésville, Jean Toussaint Merle and Eugène Centiran de Boirie.

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[edit] Performance history

The opera was first performed at the Stadttheater in Liepzig, on December 22, 1837. Lortzing's most successful and enduring work, it is still regularly performed in German-speaking countries.

[edit] Roles

Role Voice type Premiere Cast, December 22, 1837
(Conductor: - )
Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia baritone Karl Becker
Peter Ivanov, young Russian carpenter tenor Albert Lortzing
Marie, niece of Ivanov soprano Caroline Günther-Bachmann
Van Bett, burgomaster of Saarlem bass Gotthelf Leberecht Berthold
Marquis de Chateauneuf, French ambassador tenor Swoboda
Widow Browe, master carpenter mezzo-soprano Caroline Günther-Bachmann
General Lefort, Russian ambassador bass Pogner
Lord Syndham, English ambassador bass Heinrich Richter

[edit] Synopsis

The action takes place in Saardam, Holland, in 1698.

Peter the Great of Russia, disguised as Peter Michaelov, is working in the Dutch shipyards in order to learn nautical trades. He befriends the deserter Peter Ivanov, who is in love with the Burgmeister Van Bett's daughter Marie. Asked whether Peter the Great is really in the shipyard, the Burgmeister identifies the wrong Peter. The Russian and English ambassadors are deceived, but the French ambassador Chateauneuf recognises the real Tsar. Van Bett prepares to sent Peter Ivanov home in state, whilst the real Tsar departs quietly for Russia.

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