(A Masked Ball) | Opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi | Libretto by Antonio Somma | In Italian with German surtitles
“Power is of no useifit does not dry the tearsof its subjects and does not aim forundimmedglory.”
Riccardo in *Un ballo in maschera*
Power, passion, and betrayal: Governor Riccardo secretly loves Amelia, the wife of his secretary and best friend, Renato. Riccardo does not take a warning prophecy from the fortune-teller Ulrica seriously. When Renato discovers the forbidden love between Riccardo and Amelia, his loyalty turns to deadly hatred: He joins conspirators who are planning an assassination attempt on Riccardo. At a masquerade ball, the situation finally escalates into violence…
Giuseppe Verdi’s opera draws on a historical assassination: In 1792, King Gustav III of Sweden was murdered at a masquerade ball at the Stockholm Opera House. However, Roman censors in 1859 would not permit the murder of a king on the opera stage—and so Verdi and his librettist Antonio Somma transformed the king into a fictional governor of Boston. Central to the story, however, remained the fateful intertwining of political intrigue and personal romantic tragedy, which lends this opera its great dramatic power. Behind their masks, the main characters reveal an inner turmoil that Verdi explores musically in all its depth.
Director Christian Weise returns to the Mecklenburg State Theater for an opera production following his previous stage productions (The Ideal Husband, 2012; King Ubu, 2014). His productions are musically sophisticated, characterized by great physical intensity, and do not shy away from exaggeration or disruption. Most recently, he caused a sensation with productions at Berlin’s Maxim Gorki Theater, including *Carmen* and *Queen Lear*.
