The Left-Hander

About the show

Tsar Nicholas I challenges Russian workmen to improve on a steel flea made by English craftsmen for his brother Alexander I. The Left-Hander attaches tiny horseshoes to the flea and is sent to England, where he declines offers to remain and marry an Englishwoman. On his return voyage a storm and a drunken English sailor imperil the ship. The Left-Hander reaches Saint Petersburg drunk, is arrested, and sends the Tsar a warning that cleaning muskets with brick dust will leave the Russian army unprepared for war. He dies; the flea sings a lullaby, and the opera ends with a burial rite.