Un ballo in maschera

*Un ballo in maschera*
Un ballo in maschera
Opera by Giuseppe Verdi
	Frontispiece of the 1860 vocal score, depicting the final scene of the opera
Translation	A Masked Ball
Librettist	Antonio Somma
Language	Italian
Based on	Eugène Scribe's libretto for Daniel Auber's 1833 Gustave III, ou Le bal masqué
Premiere	17 February 1859; Teatro Apollo, Rome

"È scherzo od è follia"

Enrico Caruso, Frieda Hempel, Maria Duchêne, Andrés de Segurola and Léon Rothier (1914), from act 1, scene 2

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Un ballo in maschera ('A Masked Ball') is an 1859 opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The text, by Antonio Somma, was based on Eugène Scribe's libretto for Daniel Auber's 1833 five act opera, Gustave III, ou Le bal masqué.^[1]

The plot concerns the assassination in 1792 of King Gustav III of Sweden^[2] who was shot, as the result of a political conspiracy, while attending a masked ball, dying of his wounds thirteen days later.

It was to take over two years between the commission from Naples, planned for a production there, and its premiere performance at the Teatro Apollo in Rome on 17 February 1859. In becoming the Un ballo in maschera which we know today, Verdi's opera (and his libretto) underwent a significant series of transformations and title changes, caused by a combination of censorship regulations in both Naples and Rome, as well as by the political situation in France in January 1858. Based on the Scribe libretto and begun as Gustavo III set in Stockholm, it became Una vendetta in domino set in Stettin, and finally Un ballo in maschera set in Boston during the colonial era. It became one of the most frustrating experiences of Verdi's career.

From the mid-20th century, it has become more common for the setting to revert to its original 18th-century Stockholm location. A re-creation of the original Gustavo III has been staged in Sweden.

^ Baldini 1980, p. 248: Roger Parker, as editor and translator of The Story of Giuseppe Verdi challenges Baldini's statement that Gustave was a play, and he asserts that it was only an opera libretto written for Auber's opera.
^ Budden 1984, p. 363. Verdi to Torelli: "I'm scaling down a French drama, Gustavo III di Svezia, libretto by Scribe, performed at the Opéra twenty years ago"

[1] Baldini 1980, p. 248: Roger Parker, as editor and translator of The Story of Giuseppe Verdi challenges Baldini's statement that Gustave was a play, and he asserts that it was only an opera libretto written for Auber's opera.

[2] Budden 1984, p. 363. Verdi to Torelli: "I'm scaling down a French drama, Gustavo III di Svezia, libretto by Scribe, performed at the Opéra twenty years ago"

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