Portal:Opera/Selected picture/53
Credit: Roberto Focosi, engraved by Francesco Corbetta, and restored by Adam Cuerden
Frontispiece to the 1860 vocal score of Verdi's opera, Un ballo in maschera. Major problems with the censors beset this opera. Originally entitled Gustavo III, it was a fictionalized account of the 1792 assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden. The censors forbade the portrayal of a real monarch, let alone the assassination of the monarch on stage. Verdi had the setting moved to Germany with all the names changed and the opera retitled Una vendetta. The censors objected again. Verdi gave up, broke his contract with the Teatro San Carlo, the commissioning opera house, and returned home. The San Carlo sued. Verdi counter-sued. Once the legal issues cleared, Verdi submitted it to the Teatro Apollo. This time the setting was in Colonial America. It was finally performed in 1859 and proved a hit.