Un ballo in maschera / A Masked Ball

The catastrophe first emerges when guests at a ball remove their masks: A murder has been committed under the very noses of those who believed themselves so safe and sound in their sleek aristocratic world, a world where everyone adheres with perfection to their appointed roles. But the spanner thrust into the works brings the whole system to collapse when human emotion bursts through well-worn channels: Riccardo, the ruler, secretly desires Amelia, wife of his confidant Renato. A warning from fortune-teller Ulrica is disregarded by Riccardo. Conspirators plan to assassinate the ruler and manage to win over Renato to their cause …
From misapprehensions and all that is left unsaid to pretence, the main characters wear masks to disguise their double-dealings, and in the end, this very communication leads to the demise of all. The murder of the ruler becomes a symbolic exodus from an entire system.
Following its successful premiere in Rome in 1859, Verdi’s »Un ballo in maschera« was soon performed abroad. Verdi, at the behest of the censor, had been forced to alter the setting, characters and content of his opera, originally centred on the 1792 Stockholm murder of Swedish King Gustav III at the hands of opponents at a masked ball. This set of circumstances leaves the expressive music all the more implacable as it rushes us inexorably towards its tragic finale.

Synopsis

Melodramma in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. Performed in Italian with German surtitles.

Running time 2 hours 45 minutes

Premiere 30 Sep 2011