Which historical figure is a lead role in the opera "Zar und Zimmermann"?

The composer Albert Lortzing (1801-1851) may be stuck in 'connoisseur curio' status outside the German-speaking world. Still, his opera "Zar und Zimmermann" (Tsar & Carpenter, 1837) is notable for Peter the Great as dual-title role. It was based on a contemporaneous French historic fiction, "The Burgomaster (Mayor) of Saardam (today Zaandam, Netherlands)" by three co-authors, about Tsar Peter's sojourn to the Netherlands to learn shipbuilding.

In both the opera and the original source, Peter has obtained work using an alias last name (Michailov) with a shipbuilding firm in Saardam, unaware another Russian (Peter Ivanov) is already in the firm, having deserted his country's army, thus mistaken identity is a co-dominant theme. After an admittedly complicated plot, Tsar Peter reveals his true identity and departs to his homeland, while Ivanov marries Marie, his sweetheart and niece of Van Bett, mayor of Saardam.

While Lortzing has always been in the shadows of older Italian contemporary Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848), the latter's earlier adaption (Il Borgomastro di Saardam, 1827) suffered quicker and longer oblivion. After 1839, Donizetti's version received no more stagings till 1973 in a series of nine performances in Zaandam, nee Saardam. By contrast Lortzing's, while still a curio outside the German-speaking world, is preserved in three German TV films and multiple commercial studio and live 'pirate' (radio aircheck tape) recordings.