Un ballo in maschera

Social splendor, political danger, and forbidden love: Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera is a deadly game played out on stage. King Gustav III dances, masked, through a world of intrigue, passion, and power, intoxicated by his perceived invulnerability.

Within Verdi’s body of work, Un ballo in maschera is considered unique for its musical perfection and, at the same time, one of his most enigmatic operas. The original work Eugène Scribe’s Gustave is based on a historical event: the assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden. Giuseppe Verdi and Antonio Somma transform the ruler into an approachable, almost reckless figure who becomes consumed by a forbidden love for his best friend’s wife, all while ignoring the political threats surrounding him. As conspirators gather and the fortune-teller Ulrika prophesies Gustav’s imminent death, the boundaries between public duty and private desire begin to blur. Yet the sovereign, believing himself safe, longs only for the moment he can see his beloved Amelia again: the masked ball.

Verdi’s music lends a breathtaking dramatic arc to this tension: lush love melodies clash with seething unrest, and courtly lightness with dark foreboding. Thus, the masked ball becomes a symbol of a society lulled into a false sense of security by the glitter of prosperity—and, for that very reason, careening toward its own downfall. Jasmina Hadžiahmetović is directing the staging of this dangerously seductive material.

program

Un ballo in maschera

Melodramma in drei Akten von Giuseppe Verdi

Libretto von Antonio Somma

In italienischer Sprache mit deutschen Übertiteln

Place

Tiroler Landestheater Innsbruck (English: Tyrolean State Theatre) is the state theatre in Innsbruck, Austria, located near the historic Altstadt (Old Town) section of the city. The theatre is surrounded by Imperial Hofburg, the Hofgarten, and SOWI Faculty of the University of Innsbruck. The main theatre has about 800 seats and the studio theatre in the basement has around 250. Plays, operas, operettas, musicals and dance theatre are performed at the theatre.