The masked ball which ends the opera written by Verdi in 1858 is no cheerful party. It is the scene of the regicide which was committed in 1792 on Sweden’s Gustav III. Masks are the ideal cover for all who have something to hide or to keep secret - Gustav and Amelia with their adulterous love, Anckarström the betrayed husband and friend, Oscar the unwilling harbinger of destiny, and the gang who conspire against the King. Without reference to the festive hall, the amusement put on for show already stands unmasked as a mere façade. Everybody is long since estranged from everybody else: the wife from the husband, the friend from the friend, the statesman from the population; and the etiquette of society barely covers up the chaos and anarchy which reign behind it. Not without reason did the Italian censorship demand of Verdi that he change the venue of the masked ball including an overt murder shown on stage, seeing that it was not even a year since the attack on Napoleon III in Naples. The outcome was a transfer of the story to the then colonial Boston in America and the transformation of the Swedish King into a British governor-general, the diplomat Anckarstroem is degraded to a coloured secretary, and the aristocrats who plot against the King are now simply called Samuel and Tom. The explosiveness of the piece remains.

In no other opera does Verdi so centralize the theme of the ambiguity of social existence with its tragic and comical sides, and the mortal danger which lurks in it. That the masked ball becomes a catastrophe is the outbreak of a latent threat which had been overshadowing the whole piece; for a King who neglects his political responsibility in favour of private matters, an advisor who overlooks his ruler’s weaknesses in blind patriotism, and a woman who does not dare to choose, are the ingredients for the overthrow of an entire system.

 
***
Giuseppe Verdi
(1813 - 1901)

UN BALLO IN MASCHERA
Opera in three acts
Libretto by Antonio Somma
 
Sung in Italian with German titles
 

Musikalische Leitung Peter Hirsch
Inszenierung Stein Winge
Bühne Hartmut Schörghofer
Kostüme Tine Schwab
Licht Franck Evin
Choreographie Falco Kapuste
Chorleitung Christoph Kurig
 
Gustav Zoran Todorovich
Anckarström Boris Statsenko
Amelia Barbara Haveman
Ulrica Olesya Petrova
Oscar Heidi Elisabeth Meier, Dorothea Brandt
Cristiano Bogdan Baciu
Horn Günes Gürle
Ribbing Daniel Djambazian
Richter Klaus Walter
Diener Roland Steingießer
Chor Chor der Deutschen Oper am Rhein
 
Orchester Düsseldorfer Symphoniker