UN BALLO IN MASCHERA

“Un ballo in maschera” according to Massimo Mila, renowned critic and musicologist, is “Verdi’s Tristan and Isolde.” A sorceress predicts the betrayal and murder of the king at the hands of his best friend. But the regicide could not be portrayed and censorship raged, forcing an American setting (the protagonist, Richard, would end up being the Count of Boston).

Massimo Gasparon, starting from the historic 1989 Parma staging, creates a new dramaturgical perspective of the characters through an emotional and empathetic update that is not superficially merely aesthetic. He writes in his director’s notes, “We could (…) call this a revival with notable new scenographic and dramaturgical elements, an important opportunity to rediscover modernity through style and tradition, where the new must arise from the classical core of the melodramatic tradition. My directorial approach starts from a deep search for an increasingly current sensibility. In addition, I gave a lot of importance to the esoteric and Luciferian component, which Verdi continually exalts: the number Three is continually pronounced and becomes a satanic mantra full of divinatory meanings.”

“Un ballo in maschera,” explains conductor Alessandro D’Agostini, “gathers within itself so much diversity of stylistic registers, orchestral colors, and depth of characters, that a reflection on the general modes of interpretation of this opera is necessary. (…) What is the result of this research? To tell the audience a story made up of human beings, of emotions and feelings common to each of us, alive and vibrant. To tell that each of us is a world, that each of us is capable of great deeds as well as great miseries.”