Composed in the middle of Giuseppe Verdi’s prolific career, Un Ballo in Maschera is replete with the kind of passionate vocal outpourings that make his earlier works so compelling but also shows signs of the composer’s musical evolution—which would reach its fruition in the later masterpieces Otello and Falstaff. The opera’s story came from history—Sweden’s King Gustav III was assassinated by a political enemy during a masked ball at the Stockholm Opera House in 1792. But in Verdi’s hands, the tale transcends mere historical reenactment: As he did in many of his most celebrated creations, the composer uses it as an opportunity to explore the intersection of the public and private lives of those in power.

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