Organization

Singer

Tenor

Hector Sandoval

Richard

Baritone

Carlo Guelfi

Renato

Soprano

Kristin Lewis

Amelia

Contralto

Nicole Piccolomini

Ulrica

Serena Gamberoni

Oscar

Bass

Filippo Polinelli

Silvano

Antonio Barbagallo

Enrico Rinaldo

Samuel

Cosimo Vassallo

A judge

Conductor

Gianluigi Gelmetti

Stage director

Massimo Gasparòn

Costume designer

Pier Luigi Samaritani

Set designer

Choreographer

Roberto Maria Pizzuto

Enrico Paolillo

A servant of Amelia

Teatro Regio di Parma

Orchestra

Orchestra del Teatro Regio di Parma

Un ballo in maschera -  (A Masked Ball)

Parma

Italy

Teatro Regio

Boston, late 17th century. A group of conspirators plan to overthrow Governor Riccardo. He has an affair with Amelia, the wife of his confidant and secretary Renato. During a nocturnal rendezvous in a lonely area, Riccardo is about to be attacked and murdered. Renato warns him and escorts the veiled Amelia home. When the secret is revealed, Renato swears revenge and arranges to meet the governor's opponents. The conspirators learn from the page Oskar in which costume Riccardo will appear at the masked ball...

In March 1792, the Swedish king Gustav III. murdered during a masked ball in Stockholm. Eugène Scribe brought the tragic event, enriched with a love story, to the theater stage, his play was set to music by Auber in 1833. When Verdi was commissioned to write an opera by the Teatro San Carlo in Naples in 1856, he drew on the story and had Antonio Somma rework the libretto according to his requirements. In the meantime, however, there had been assassination attempts on kings Ferdinand II and Napoleon III. had been committed, and the censorship in Naples rejected the opera: a regicide was not allowed to be shown on the stage. In order to save the performance, Verdi agrees to move the action outside of Europe: now the governor of Boston becomes the victim of an intrigue.
The opera was finally premiered in Rome in 1859. The music of both versions is the same - apart from small differences such as "Conte" (Count) instead of "Re" (King) - and is among the best that Verdi wrote for the operatic stage. Although the form of the opera is strictly divided into "numbers" such as aria, duet, etc., it achieves gripping drama, and the high quality of the music makes it easy to overlook some of the libretto's shortcomings.
For a long time, "Un ballo in maschera" was performed exclusively with the action taking place in America. It was not until the middle of the 20th century that a return to the original Stockholm setting followed. But the story set in the USA is also performed - as in this production from the Teatro Regio di Parma.

Massimo Gasparon's production goes back to a production by the Italian director, stage and costume designer Pierluigi Samaritani (1942-1994).

Un ballo in maschera Verdi

Public

A Masked Ball

Approved

Photos