NEW YORK—“Un Ballo in Maschera” (“A Masked Ball”) is Verdi’s opera about the assassination of the Swedish monarch, Gustav III, in 1792. The censors in Italy at the time the opera was first performed (1859) were sensitive about the subject of regicide and the action was changed to colonial Boston.
For the last half-century or so, most opera companies, including the Metropolitan Opera, have restored the locale to Sweden and that is true of the new production, directed by David Alden. However, the time frame is moved up to the early 20th century.
Verdi’s librettist Antonio Somma based his script on an actual assassination at a masked ball. Even the fortuneteller is based on a real person: a supposed clairvoyant named Ulrica, who warned King Gustav that he was in mortal danger.
