- Zar und Zimmermann
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Operas by Albert Lortzing 
Zar und Zimmermann (1837)
Der Wildschütz (1842)
Undine (1845)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. In 1956 it was adapted into an East German film The Czar and the Carpenter.
Contents
Performance history
The opera was first performed at the Stadttheater in Leipzig, on December 22, 1837. Lortzing's most successful and enduring work, it is still regularly performed in German-speaking countries.
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 Van Bett, burgomaster of Saarlem bass Gotthelf Leberecht Berthold Marie, daughter of van Bett soprano Caroline Günther-Bachmann Marquis de Chateauneuf, French ambassador tenor Joseph Wilhelm Swoboda Widow Browe, master carpenter mezzo-soprano Caroline Günther-Bachmann General Lefort, Russian ambassador bass Pogner Lord Syndham, English ambassador bass Heinrich Richter 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 send Peter Ivanov home in state, whilst the real Tsar departs quietly for Russia.
References
- Sources
- Amadeus Almanac
- Anderson, James, The Complete Dictionary of Opera and Operetta, Wings Books, 1993. ISBN 0-517-09156-9
- Brown, Clive (1992), 'Zar und Zimmermann' in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, ed. Stanley Sadie (London) ISBN 0-333-73432-7
External links
Categories:- German-language operas
- Operas by Albert Lortzing
- 1837 operas
- Operas
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