Giuseppe Verdi's "Un ballo in maschera"

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Image Courtesy of Liceu.

By the time Verdi wrote Un ballo in maschera, he was already enjoying considerable success due to the popularity of the numerous works he had written, including: Nabucco (1842) Macbeth (1847), Rigoletto (1851), Il trovatore (1853) and La traviata (1853). In this position he only aspired to find new and daring musical themes based on a powerful story, in this case the assassination of the King of Sweden, Gustav III, in 1792, during a masked ball.  

Envy and conspiracies, mixed with amorous passions, politics, jealousy, revenge and final forgiveness come together in Verdi’s masterpiece. In Naples, the opera aroused the wrath and prohibitions of censors: a king could not be murdered on stage, and there were difficulties in showing scenes of witchcraft, infidelity had to be met with remorse and the conspirators had to hate the duke for hereditary reasons, so the composer was forced to make major adaptations and to transfer the plot from Sweden to late 17th century Boston. 

Graham Vick’s elegant production is well suited to Verdi’s thrilling drama. Recovering the version of the premiere in Rome itself, with the plot set in Sweden and without censorship, this Ballo breaks with traditional codes. A set design built from a semicircular screen that surrounds the background, with a premonitory tomb that presides over the stage, are the basis to explain the tragic destiny in which the sufferings of the main characters are shown. A suggestive space and impeccable acting work that captures the power of desire and underlines with expressive strength and coherence this postmortem production by Vick for the Teatro Regio in Parma; a universe of chiaroscuro in which monumental ensembles are combined with shots of enormous intimacy. 

With Un ballo in maschera, Verdi achieves unprecedented emotional and sensual heights in a staging that strengthens the mysterious atmosphere of this love for the same woman in which jealousy turns into such madness that Renato, with insurmountable wounds, ends up stabbing his friend. 

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