Il borgomastro di Saardam is an opera buffa

Opera buffa

Opera buffa is a genre of opera. It was first used as an informal description of Italian comic operas variously classified by their authors as ‘commedia in musica’, ‘commedia per musica’, ‘dramma bernesco’, ‘dramma comico’, ‘divertimento giocoso' etc...

 in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti

Gaetano Donizetti

Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...

. It premiered at the Teatro del Fondo

Teatro del Fondo

The Teatro del Fondo is a theatre in Naples, now known as the Teatro Mercadante. Together with the Teatro San Carlo, it was originally one of the two royal opera houses of the 18th and 19th-century city....

 in Naples on 19 August 1827. The Neapolitans loved it, for Donizetti was very popular in that city, but when it was staged at the Teatro La Scala

La Scala

La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...

 in Milan, it completely failed. Its Milan failure was a source of great satisfaction to the competitive Vincenzo Bellini

Vincenzo Bellini

Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi , La sonnambula , Norma , Beatrice di Tenda , and I puritani...

, whose Il pirata

Il pirata

Il pirata is an opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani from a French translation of the tragic play Bertram, or The Castle of St Aldobrando by Charles Maturin...

was received with great critical and popular acclaim in Milan at about the same time. The original cast included the celebrated prima donna

Prima donna

Originally used in opera or Commedia dell'arte companies, "prima donna" is Italian for "first lady." The term was used to designate the leading female singer in the opera company, the person to whom the prime roles would be given. The prima donna was normally, but not necessarily, a soprano...

 Caroline Unger

Caroline Unger

Caroline Unger was an Austro-Hungarian contralto.Born in Vienna, she studied in Italy; among her teachers were Aloysia Weber Lange and Domenico Ronconi. Her stage debut, in her native city, came in 1821, when she performed in Mozart's Così fan tutte, a performance for which Franz Schubert had...

, for whom the lead role was composed. She completely shone at the premiere, and she was surrounded by a strong cast as well, which included the buffo bass Carlo Casaccia. The score contains many Rossinisms and Donizetti's characteristically genial approach to opera buffa writing. The libretto

Libretto

A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

, by Domenico Gilardoni, was based on the 1818 play Le bourgmestre de Sardam, ou Les deux Pierres by Mélésville, Jean-Toussaint Merle and Eugène Cantiran de Boirie. Albert Lortzing

Albert Lortzing

Gustav Albert Lortzing was a German composer, actor and singer. He is considered to be the main representative of the German Spieloper, a form similar to the French opéra comique, which grew out of the Singspiel.-Biography:Lortzing was born in Berlin to Johann Gottlieb Lortzing and Charlotte Sophie...

 set the same story in his opera Zar und Zimmermann

Zar und Zimmermann

Zar und Zimmermann 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...

in 1837.

Peter the Great

Peter the Great was the tsar of Russia between 1672 and 1725. After his mother's death in 1694, he made a series of crucial reforms for Russia that in consequence became a great power. In 1703 he founded St. Petersburg and in 1712 he married his second wife, a peasant of Livonia who succeeded the throne under the name of Catherine I

Catherine I of Russia

Catherine I , the second wife of Peter the Great, reigned as Empress of Russia from 1725 until her death.-Life as a peasant woman:The life of Catherine I was said by Voltaire to be nearly as extraordinary as that of Peter the Great himself. There are no documents that confirm her origins. Born on...

. Alexis, his son born from his first marriage to Eudoxia Lopukhina

Eudoxia Lopukhina

Tsarina Evdokiya Feodorovna Lopukhina was the first wife of Peter I of Russia. They married in 1689 but divorced in 1698...

, was tortured to death in 1718, after conspiring with the clergy and the aristocracy.

Roles

Role	Voice type Voice type A voice type is a particular kind of human singing voice perceived as having certain identifying qualities or characteristics. Voice classification is the process by which human voices are evaluated and are thereby designated into voice types...	Premiere cast, 19 August 1827 (Conductor: – )
Marietta	soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...	Caroline Unger Caroline Unger Caroline Unger was an Austro-Hungarian contralto.Born in Vienna, she studied in Italy; among her teachers were Aloysia Weber Lange and Domenico Ronconi. Her stage debut, in her native city, came in 1821, when she performed in Mozart's Così fan tutte, a performance for which Franz Schubert had...
Pietro Filmann	tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...	Berardo Calvari Winter
Pietro Mikailof, or Peter the Great	baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...	Celestino Salvatori
Vambett, the mayor	buffo	Carlo Casaccia
Carlotta, his daughter	mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...	Almerinda Manzocchi
Timoteo	bass Bass (voice type) A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C...	Raffaele Casaccia
Leforte	bass	Giovanni Pace
Mayoral guard, Dutch soldiers, chorus of carpenters and farmers

The Plot

Place: Amsterdam

Time: The end of the 17th century

Peter the Great pretends to be a carpenter in shipyards in Saardam, Holland, and works with the Russian defector Flimann. Flimann is in humble condition and is desperate to marry Marietta, the daughter of the mayor. The mayor knowing that the Czar has come to town in disguise, becomes convinced that Flimann is Peter the Great. Meanwhile, the true tsar is called home to quell a revolt and has to reveal his true identity. Before leaving, ha gives Flimann a high title , which will enable him to marry his Marietta