Un ballo in maschera

The censors objected to depicting the assassination of a ruling monarch on stage, since the plot was based on the real 1792 murder of King Gustav III of Sweden at a masked ball. Verdi was forced to relocate the action to colonial Boston and transform the king into a colonial governor named Riccardo.

The opera is based on the assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden, who was shot at a masked ball at the Royal Opera in Stockholm in March 1792 and died of his wounds weeks later. Daniel Auber had previously adapted the same story into his 1833 opera 'Gustave III.'

The opera premiered at the Teatro Apollo in Rome on February 17, 1859. Despite the censor-mandated setting changes, it was a triumph and remains one of Verdi's most frequently performed middle-period operas.

The principal roles are Riccardo (governor of Boston, originally King Gustav III), Amelia (a noblewoman he loves who is married to his friend), Renato (Amelia's husband and Riccardo's secretary, originally Count Anckarström), Ulrica (a fortune teller), and Oscar (Riccardo's page, a famous trouser role for soprano).