A masterpiece of
Giuseppe Verdi's middle period,
Un Ballo in Maschera is an opera with a history. When this opera was completed, the plot in which the Swedish King Gustav III is assassinated by his faithful secretary at a masked ball coincided in the real world with an unsuccessful attempt on teh life of Napoleon III, with the result that the opera failed to pass censorship. After many turns and twists, including changing the setting to Boston and replacing the Swedish monarch with the English Governor Riccardo, the opera was finally premiered in Rome in 1859.
The Australian Opera presents the original Swedish version of this production. With a mixture of dark humor, passion, tragedy and comedy, this is a gem of Verdi's operatic works in which people's conflicting emotions are superbly expressed.
"…the passion, the terror, the joy and the tragedy were all there in her (Leona Mitchell) huge, remarkably expressive, unbelievably dark and luscious soprano voice." - The Australian
