The sight of so much
wealth arouses the cupidity of the knaves, and they at once brew a plot
to murder the huntsman in his sleep. Luckily Gabriela overhears their
scheming, and puts the Prince upon his guard. The assassins find him
prepared for their assault, and ready to defend himself to the last
drop of blood. Fortunately matters do not come to a climax. A body of
the Prince's attendants arrive in time to prevent any bloodshed, and the
opera ends with the discomfiture of the villains and the happy
settlement of Gabriela's love affairs. Kreutzer's music is for the most
part slight, and occasionally borders upon the trivial, but several
scenes are treated in the true romantic spirit, and some of the
concerted pieces are admirably written. Lortzing (1803-1852) was a more
gifted musician than Kreutzer, and several of his operas are still
exceedingly popular in Germany. The scene of 'Czar und Zimmermann,'
which is fairly well known in England as 'Peter the Shipwright,' is laid
at Saardam, where Peter the Great is working in a shipyard under the
name of Michaelhoff. There is another Russian employed in the same yard,
a deserter named Peter Ivanhoff, and the very slight incidents upon
which the action of the opera hinges arise from the mistakes of a
blundering burgomaster who confuses the identity of the two men. The
music is exceedingly bright and tuneful, and much of it is capitally
written.
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