Un ballo in maschera

Overview

Un ballo in maschera (A Masked Ball) is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi, to a libretto by Antonio Somma based on Eugène Scribe's libretto for Daniel Auber's Gustave III, ou Le bal masqué (1833). It premiered at the Teatro Apollo in Rome on 17 February 1859 (Wikipedia, "Un ballo in maschera"). The plot is a political assassination at a masked ball, loosely based on the murder of King Gustav III of Sweden in 1792; because of censorship the setting was moved from Stockholm to colonial Boston, which is why Marie speaks of "le gouverneur" (067.1443).

Marie and this work

• 11 January 1873, Nice. Her first mention, and the first entry of the diary: "Ce soir, à l'Opéra, Un ballo in maschera. Beaucoup de monde, mais moi, je suis triste." (001.0005).
• 6 December 1876, Nice. She prepares all day for "une première représentation du Ballo in Maschera" at the Opéra (067.1437) and praises the forest scene in which the governor and Amelia meet and Renato, her husband, not recognising his wife, begs the governor to flee (067.1443).
• 11 December 1876. "Le Ballo in maschera m'a fait rêver aux bals masqués de Rome": she is envious of Lady Cawper, who leaves for Rome in ten days (067.1540).

Rome and its carnival masked balls are the subject of the preceding months of her diary, so the opera becomes a vehicle for nostalgia.

Sources

• Wikipedia, "Un ballo in maschera".
• IMSLP, Un ballo in maschera (Verdi, Giuseppe)).