Ein Maskenball by Verdi, Ab (2017/2017), Unter der Regie von Rainer Pudenz,, Dirigat Florian Erdl, Palmengarten, Frankfurt am Main, Deutschland

Every summer, the Frankfurt Chamber Opera performs in the music pavilion in the Palmengarten, filling a gap in the cultural offerings of the Main metropolis. This year, the program includes the main work from Giuseppe Verdi's middle creative period, A MASKED BALL. At the time the opera was written , the barometer was pointing to a storm: in 1858, Count Felice Orsini's attempt to assassinate Napoleon III failed, but the end of Bourbon rule in Naples had been initiated. Giuseppe Verdi, an ardent anti-royalist, took up the subject: his librettist Antonio Somma adapted a draft by Eugène Scribe from 1833 for Daniel-Francois Esprit Auber, eliminated some superfluous scenes and wrote UN BALLO IN MASCHERA, one of the most effective Verdi operas ever. In this dramma lirico, bloody tragedy and burlesque operetta collide suddenly and result in a " scherzo with a fatal outcome" - a bon mot by Richard Strauss that also applies to the MASKED BALL. The opera is a puzzle of politics and private love. The intrusion of the supernatural in the form of the seer Ulrica and the sexual ambivalence of the page Oscar, a trouser role and unique in Verdi's work, sharpen the inner conflict . The historical example took place in 1792 during a masked ball in the Stockholm Opera, and Verdi and Somma now present this already confusing constellation on the opera stage as a masked play about the masked play - and Rainer Pudenz performs this masterpiece of Italian opera in German (new translation by Thomas Peter) to help the audience find their way in the maze of countless intermediate floors. Verdi's immortal music remains untouched, including what is probably the most beautiful choral Prehgiera in the history of opera: the assassination attempt has succeeded, the king has been fatally wounded - but now the tragedy turns out to be a farce , a horrible misunderstanding between friends. The thirteenth Addio was fatal!