"Zar und Zimmermann" is a comic opera, so no gruesome deeds here. It's very loosely based on Peter's time undercover at a Dutch shipping yard The plot revolves along a confusion of identities - word gets out that the Czar of Russia is working at the shipyard under another name, and there are two Russians named Peter present - Peter Michailov (the real deal) and Peter Ivanov (a deserter, whom everybody believes to be the uncercover Czar and flatters accordingly). Young Ivanov is in love with the burgermaster's niece and gets to do tenor stuff, thie French and English ambassadors scheme (this is a 19th century German opera), and at the end there's a happy resolution for all - Peter goes back to Rusisa after sorting things out for the young lovers, the schemes are foiled.
O sancta justitia! : aria of the Burgermaster, the comic relief and main antagonist of this opera
Man, there's a fic there too, isn't there, all the parallels except for this one being even darker (I'm not sure I'm glad to know this is even possible!) and (as you say) Afrosina turning coat against him, where Katte doesn't turn coat against Fritz and gets the loyal last line <3
Like I said, Wilhelmine (and thus Fritz) met Peter on one of his travels - I think it might even have been the journey during which Peter found out by letter that Alexeji had used his father's Absence to do a runner. FW received Peter in Prussia - they were allies - but the Russian Delegation must have left the Palace they were given in a terrible mess. Whether that had anything to do with the news Peter received - who knows. Anyway, given SD's lady-in-waiting later admonishes FW not to follow Peter's (and Philip's) example of son-killing, the story must have been well entrenched at the Prussian court by then. Here's another irony - I think FW might have gotten along better with Alexej (religious, conservative) provided that in this scenario, Alexeji wouldn't have threatened to undo all his father's work, or would have drunk far too much. And Fritz may have wondered how he'd have fared with Europe's most famous (and infamous) micro Managing reforming Monarch pre him as a Father - would he have died, or would they have gotten along?
(Peter seems to have been a good father to his other Offspring, but then, the only ones who lived beyond early childhood were girls and Father/daughter relationships are sometimes easier.)
In any case, I don't think FW would have thought of persuading/buying Katte to testify against Fritz. His mind didn't work that way. (Maybe if Fritz had run off with Orzelska instead? But no.) Though at least verbally it did occur to him to kill Fritz. He did have other sons, but so at the time of Alexej's death did Peter, so I wouldn't be surprised if the idea that the sin of killing your own child would doom his dynasty (or get a WOMAN on the throne - Peter had changed Russian law to make that possible) was indeed one of the things holding him back.
Speaking of women on the throne, as I observed in my fictional tv series About Fritz post, you have a rich variety of interesting women in the era and not one of them Comes between potential fandom's favored m/m couple. And many of these ladies were actually the most powerful people in their country. (MT, C1, E & C2 in Russia, and Madame de Pompadour in France.) Russia still stands out for having not one, not two but three female rulers within the 18th century.
Re: Peter
Links:
Zar und Zimmermann, an English summary
Sonst spielt' ich it Zepter, one of Peter's big arias (he's a baritone, the young tenor is someone else
Lebe wohl, mein flandrisches Mädchen (the French ambassador gets romantic)
O sancta justitia! : aria of the Burgermaster, the comic relief and main antagonist of this opera
Man, there's a fic there too, isn't there, all the parallels except for this one being even darker (I'm not sure I'm glad to know this is even possible!) and (as you say) Afrosina turning coat against him, where Katte doesn't turn coat against Fritz and gets the loyal last line <3
Like I said, Wilhelmine (and thus Fritz) met Peter on one of his travels - I think it might even have been the journey during which Peter found out by letter that Alexeji had used his father's Absence to do a runner. FW received Peter in Prussia - they were allies - but the Russian Delegation must have left the Palace they were given in a terrible mess. Whether that had anything to do with the news Peter received - who knows. Anyway, given SD's lady-in-waiting later admonishes FW not to follow Peter's (and Philip's) example of son-killing, the story must have been well entrenched at the Prussian court by then. Here's another irony - I think FW might have gotten along better with Alexej (religious, conservative) provided that in this scenario, Alexeji wouldn't have threatened to undo all his father's work, or would have drunk far too much. And Fritz may have wondered how he'd have fared with Europe's most famous (and infamous) micro Managing reforming Monarch pre him as a Father - would he have died, or would they have gotten along?
(Peter seems to have been a good father to his other Offspring, but then, the only ones who lived beyond early childhood were girls and Father/daughter relationships are sometimes easier.)
In any case, I don't think FW would have thought of persuading/buying Katte to testify against Fritz. His mind didn't work that way. (Maybe if Fritz had run off with Orzelska instead? But no.) Though at least verbally it did occur to him to kill Fritz. He did have other sons, but so at the time of Alexej's death did Peter, so I wouldn't be surprised if the idea that the sin of killing your own child would doom his dynasty (or get a WOMAN on the throne - Peter had changed Russian law to make that possible) was indeed one of the things holding him back.
Speaking of women on the throne, as I observed in my fictional tv series About Fritz post, you have a rich variety of interesting women in the era and not one of them Comes between potential fandom's favored m/m couple. And many of these ladies were actually the most powerful people in their country. (MT, C1, E & C2 in Russia, and Madame de Pompadour in France.) Russia still stands out for having not one, not two but three female rulers within the 18th century.