she has left that Peters realises that it is Catherine in disguise that he has ordered killed. She has sent him back his ring along with the letter that reveals a plot against the Tsar on the way to her execution. Gritzenko enters with the news that "Georges" escaped execution by running away and swimming across the river. Peters reveals that he is really the Tsar himself, and thereby crushes the rebellion. As massed military bands arrive (Marche sacrée), all proclaim their loyalty to him. Act 3 A rich apartment in the Tsar's palace. On the left, a door overlooking the gardens. On the right, a door leading to the palace apartments. At the back of the stage, a large window opening onto the park. Peter, in his rightful place as Tsar, is missing his life as a simple carpenter and Catherine, the girl he loves (Romance: "Ô jours heureux de joie et de misère ".) He has invited the carpenters he knew in Finland to come and visit him. Danilowitch assures Peter that Catherine is still alive and sets out to find her. Gritzenko enters with the news that the carpenters from Finland have arrived. Peter recognises him as the person who let Catherine escape and orders him to produce her on pain of execution. Georges and Prascovia arrive with the others from Finland. They fear that Georges will be executed as a deserter. Danilowitch returns - he has found Catherine, but the girl, thinking that Peter no longer loves her, has gone mad. Peter however knows how to restore her sanity - he gets out his flute and plays her favourite tune (Air with two flutes:" La, la, la, air chéri"). Her wits are restored, she learns that the man she loves is Tsar of Russia, who will marry her, and she is acclaimed by all as the new Empress of All the Russias. Composition history Meyerbeer and his librettist Eugène Scribe had presented sensationally successful French grand operas at the Paris Opéra. After the tremendous success of their Le prophète in 1849, Émile Perrin, director of the Opéra-Comique, invited Meyerbeer to compose a work in that genre for his theatre. Meyerbeer had long wanted to try his hand at this typically French style of work, and he decided to adapt his German singspiel Ein Feldlager in Schlesien, presented in Berlin in 1844, for that purpose. Ein Feldlager