"written, he broke his contract. This resulted in litigation and counter-litigation; with the legal issues resolved, Verdi was free to present the libretto and musical outline of ""Gustave III"" to the Rome Opera. There, the censors demanded further changes; at this point, the opera took the title ""Un ballo in maschera"". Arriving in Sant'Agata in March 1859 Verdi and Strepponi found the nearby city of Piacenza occupied by about 6,000 Austrian troops who had made it their base, to combat the rise of Italian interest in unification in the Piedmont region. In the ensuing Second Italian War of Independence the"
"Sweden during the 2002/03 season, 146 years after Verdi took his libretto for ""Gustavo III"" away from the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. ""Gustavo III"" was given at the San Carlo in January/February 2004. Notes Sources Gustavo III (Verdi) Gustavo III is an opera by Giuseppe Verdi to a libretto begun in early 1857 by the Italian playwright Antonio Somma. Never performed as written, the libretto was later revised (or proposed to be revised) several times under two additional names – ""Una vendetta in domino"" and ""Adelia degli Adimari"" – during which the setting was changed to vastly different locations."
"the composer, with 168 performances until 1853. Ellen Creathorne Clayton has translated French critic Jules Janin's description of the last act, which was often presented separately from the opera, as follows: The opera concerns some aspects of the real-life assassination of Gustavus III, King of Sweden. The major aspects of the plot can be found first in Giuseppe Verdi's planned opera, ""Gustavo III"", which was never performed as written, but whose major elements were incorporated into a revised version of the story in the opera which eventually became ""Un ballo in maschera"". Notes Sources Gustave III (Auber) Gustave III, ou"
"proved to be impracticable, Verdi turned to the subject of King Gustav III's assassination as portrayed in Scribe and Auber's opera, albeit not an historically accurate narrative. That subject was well known and had been used by other composers, including Saverio Mercadante for his ""Il reggente"" in 1843. For the libretto, Scribe retained the names of some of the historical figures involved (including fortune teller Ulrica Arfvidsson, the conspiracy, and the killing at the masked ball, but, as noted by Budden, ""it was a simple case of 'cherchez la femme'"": for the rest of the play Scribe invented the romance"
"Ball""). In the operas, his motivation is changed to jealousy over his wife Amelia, with whom Gustav is portrayed as being in love. He is actually portrayed as being Gustav's close friend before he switches allegiances. Gustav pardons him with his last breath. In the censored version of the Verdi libretto, set in Colonial-era Boston, he is called Renato (Rene). Jacob Johan Anckarström Jacob Johan Anckarström (11 May 1762 – 27 April 1792) was a Swedish military officer who assassinated Gustav III, king of Sweden. He was convicted and executed for regicide. He was the son of Jacob Johan Anckarström"
"Rome, as well as by the political situation in France in January 1858. It became one of the most frustrating experiences of Verdi's career. From the mid-20th century, it has become more common for the setting to revert to its original 18th-century Stockholm location. A re-creation of the original ""Gustavo III"" has been staged in Sweden. A commission by the Teatro San Carlo in Naples in early 1857 led Verdi to begin to oversee the finalization of the libretto (also by Somma) for ""Re Lear"" with the aim of presenting the finished opera during the 1858 carnival season. When this"
"Opera under the direction of the composer himself. Funeral of Gustav III of Sweden The Funeral of King Gustav III of Sweden took place on 14 May 1792. The king had died on 29 March as a result of the injuries he sustained when he was shot by Jacob Johan Anckarström during a masquerade ball at the Royal Opera in Stockholm on 16 March. The funeral itself was held in Riddarholmskyrkan, which had been decorated in a grand manner. For the funeral, Joseph Martin Kraus composed a funeral march to a text of Carl Gustaf Leopold that was performed by"
"Salomonis"" (Vicar of Solomon). Notable opera composers under Gustav's reign were three artists originally from Germany: Johann Gottlieb Naumann, Georg Joseph Vogler and Joseph Martin Kraus. All of them succeeded in adapting their musical origins to Swedish national dramatic style, a process sometimes overseen by the king (notably in the layout of the libretto for the opera ""Gustav Wasa"" from 1786). It was in the foyer of the opera house that King Gustav III was assassinated. This incident became the basis of an opera libretto by Scribe set by Daniel Auber in 1833 under the title ""Gustave III"" and by"
"parties involved. Catherine II regarded the war against her Swedish cousin as a substantial distraction, as her land troops were tied up in the war against Turkey, and she was likewise concerned with revolutionary events unfolding in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (the 3 May Constitution) and in France (the French Revolution). The Swedish attack foiled the Russian plans of sending its navy into the Mediterranean to support its forces fighting the Ottomans, as it was needed to protect the capital, Saint Petersburg. The war solved Gustav III's domestic problems only briefly, as he was assassinated at the opera in Stockholm, in"
"recognize a regular handling and expressive quality in his style. For these, the public wanted to salute Signor Donizetti on stage at the end of the opera"". For the first time in 192 years, the opera was presented at the Vadstena Academy in Sweden in July/August 2012. ""The king has been deceived and murdered by his own brother. The king's bodyguards, Pietro and Brunone, manage to escape with Enrico, the first-born son of the king and the rightful heir to the throne. During Pietro’s escape, his wife is killed before they can get to safety. Brunone stays in the castle,"
"Notes Sources Cristina, regina di Svezia Cristina, regina di Svezia (Christina, Queen of Sweden) is an opera in five parts and three acts composed by Jacopo Foroni. The Italian libretto by Giovanni Carlo Casanova is loosely based on the events surrounding the abdication of Christina, Queen of Sweden in 1654. The opera premiered on 22 May 1849 at the Mindre Theatre in Stockholm. ""Cristina, regina di Svezia"" was Jacopo Foroni's second opera. His first, ""Margherita"", had premiered in Milan in 1848. However, his involvement with the Five Days of Milan uprising had made life dangerous in the city and led"
"Naples and rehearsals of ""Una vendetta"" were about to begin when, on 14 January 1858, three Italians attempted to assassinate Emperor Napoleon III in Paris, an event which was to affect the opera's production. The imposition of still further, more stringent requirements by the censor incurred Verdi's wrath. He broke his contract, returned to Sant'Agata in April, and was sued by the management of the San Carlo house. This provoked him to lodge a counter-claim against the theatre for damages and, eventually, the legal fight ended. It was during this period of turmoil that Verdi was to describe the previous"
"the opera. Basing it as he did on the skeleton score of ""Una vendetta"", Verdi transformed the setting and characters' names to fit the requirements. The score's text required modification to agree with ""Ballo"" and not ""Una vendetta"", orchestration was completed, and musical changes and adjustments were made. Significant changes in the music occurred after 11 September and are also detailed by Gossett. The first performance of the new opera was presented on 17 February 1859. By about 1870, after ""Ballo"" had become successful and when Italian unification removed much of regional censorship, Verdi could probably have returned the opera"
"a Library, musicologist Roger Parker surveyed recordings of ""Un Ballo in Maschera"" and recommended the 1975 recording by the New Philharmonia Orchestra, Chorus of the Royal House Covent Garden, Haberdashers' Aske's School Girls’ Choir, Riccardo Muti (conductor), as the best available choice. Notes Sources Un ballo in maschera discography This is a discography of Giuseppe Verdi's opera, ""Un ballo in maschera"". It was first performed at the Teatro Apollo in Rome on 17 February 1859. However, prior to the version of the opera which appears in the recordings below, Verdi had been using the title of ""Gustavo III"" and, when"
"opera based on Shakespeare's ""King Lear"" never came to fruition—despite the existence of a libretto—Boito provided subtle and resonant libretti for Verdi's last two masterpieces, ""Otello"" (which was based on Shakespeare's play ""Othello"") and ""Falstaff"" based on ""The Merry Wives of Windsor"" and parts of ""Henry IV"". After their years of close association, when Verdi died in 1901, Boito was at his bedside. The years given are those of the premieres. Boito also provided the text to Verdi's cantata ""Inno delle Nazioni"" which was first given on 24 May 1862 at Her Majesty's Theatre, London. Recordings of two operas exist:"
"Naples and planned for a production there and its premiere performance at the Teatro Apollo in Rome on 17 February 1859. In order to become the ""Un ballo in maschera"" which we know today, Verdi's opera (and his libretto) was forced to undergo a significant series of transformations and title changes. Based on the Scribe libretto and begun as ""Gustavo III"" set in Stockholm, it became ""Una vendetta in domino"" set in Stettin, and finally ""Un ballo in maschera"" set in Boston during the colonial era. These changes were caused by a combination of censorship regulations in both Naples and"
"that is used as the foyer today. After the assassination of King Gustav III in 1792 (which is the basis of the Giuseppe Verdi opera, ""Un ballo in maschera""), the theatre was used as a storage room for Drottnignholm Palace’s unused furniture. In 1921, Swedish theatre historian Agne Beijer rediscovered Drottningholm Theatre and, with royal permission, preserved what was left of the theatre’s interior and stage machinery. Some small changes were made, including the addition of electric lights, which was designed to flicker like candles, the replacement of the original ropes that moved the machinery, and the substitution replicas for"
"Odabella stabs him with the sword he had given her. The three conspirators cry that the people have been avenged. Modern day critical reactions to Verdi's music and musical choices varies somewhat, but there is general unanimity as to its principal weaknesses. For Baldini, ""Attila"" is ""one of the weakest scores of the 'galley years'"" and he references the contemporary critical viewpoint of Luigi Casamorata who wrote in the ""Gazzetta Musicale di Milano"" of 17 January 1847 that, with this opera, Verdi had reached the ""apogee of cabalettism"". However, Baldini does point to the strengths of the score which include"
"Cristina, regina di Svezia Cristina, regina di Svezia (Christina, Queen of Sweden) is an opera in five parts and three acts composed by Jacopo Foroni. The Italian libretto by Giovanni Carlo Casanova is loosely based on the events surrounding the abdication of Christina, Queen of Sweden in 1654. The opera premiered on 22 May 1849 at the Mindre Theatre in Stockholm. ""Cristina, regina di Svezia"" was Jacopo Foroni's second opera. His first, ""Margherita"", had premiered in Milan in 1848. However, his involvement with the Five Days of Milan uprising had made life dangerous in the city and led him to"
"""heavily altered from revival to revival"". Among other productions, the opera was performed at the Rossini in Wildbad festival in 2017. Eduardo, commander of the Swedish army, brings news of peace and is greeted triumphantly by King Carlo in Stockholm. That same day, the king announces that his daughter, Cristina, is to be married to Prince Giacomo of Scotland. Cristina, however, is already secretly Eduardo’s wife, and together they have a young son, Gustavo. Christina makes plans to escape, but during the wedding preparations little Gustavo is discovered. Cristina proclaims herself his mother, though she will not reveal the father’s"
"Funeral of Gustav III of Sweden The Funeral of King Gustav III of Sweden took place on 14 May 1792. The king had died on 29 March as a result of the injuries he sustained when he was shot by Jacob Johan Anckarström during a masquerade ball at the Royal Opera in Stockholm on 16 March. The funeral itself was held in Riddarholmskyrkan, which had been decorated in a grand manner. For the funeral, Joseph Martin Kraus composed a funeral march to a text of Carl Gustaf Leopold that was performed by solo singers, choir and orchestra from the Royal"
"endured his sufferings with the greatest fortitude, and seemed to rejoice in having rid his country of a tyrant. His principal accomplices were imprisoned for life. In the same year, the ""Anckarström"" family changed its surname to ""Löwenström"" and donated funds for a hospital as a gift of appeasement. This resulted in the Löwenström Hospital, or ""Löwenströmska lasarettet"" in Upplands Väsby north of Stockholm. Living descendants of Anckarström include Ulf Adelsohn, solo sailor Sven Yrvind, and the American actress Alexandra Neil. Anckarström is a character in Daniel Auber's opera ""Gustave III"" and Giuseppe Verdi's ""Un ballo in maschera"" (""A Masked"
"very long, with as many as five intermissions. Ballets were generally added in the middle of operas, to create additional opportunities for intermissions. The Salle Peletier had one infamous moment in its history; on 14 January 1858, a group of Italian extreme nationalists attempted to kill Napoleon III at the entrance of the opera house; they set off several bombs, which killed eight people and injured one hundred and fifty persons, and splattered the Empress Eugénie de Montijo with blood, though the Emperor was unharmed. Giuseppe Verdi played an important part in the glory of the Paris opera. He had"
"the Tre Kronor castle in Stockholm and on an island in Saltsjön Bay in the weeks leading up to Queen Christina's abdication in 1654 and culminates with the abdication itself. All the central characters are real historical figures associated with Queen Christina, although considerable liberties are taken with the time sequences, conflating events in the mid-1650s with those which occurred several years earlier. Cristina's unrequited love for Gabriele (Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie) and jealousy of his lover Maria Eufrosina (Maria Eufrosyne of Zweibrücken) are central to the opera's plot, and she only consents to their marriage at the moment"
"Riccardo in Verdi's) is killed at a masked ball by his political and romantic rival. Both operas also have a mysterious gypsy fortune teller who directs the heroine to gather magic herbs in a ""horrid place"" to concoct a potion which will free her from her forbidden love. In Carrer's opera the place is a ruined graveyard; in Verdi's it is a hanging ground. The libretto of ""Isabella d'Aspeno"" shares several of its characters' names and its setting with ""The House of Aspen"", a play by Sir Walter Scott written in 1799 and published in 1829. Based on a retelling"
"with him the skeleton score and this was handed over to Torelli. With the major issues seeming to have been resolved and rehearsals of ""Un vendetta"" about to begin, an attempt to assassinate Emperor Napoleon III in Paris by three Italians led by Felice Orsini occurred on 14 January 1858. After attempting to obtain agreement on the singers during his first ten days in Naples, Verdi finally discovered that the company's management had withheld the news that the censors had refused to approve the libretto some three months before. Now, with the latest news regarding the Emperor, the Naples Chief"
"Falstaff (opera) Falstaff () is a comic opera in three acts by the Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi. The libretto was adapted by Arrigo Boito from Shakespeare's ""The Merry Wives of Windsor"" and scenes from ""Henry IV"", parts 1 and 2. The work premiered on 9 February 1893 at La Scala, Milan. Verdi wrote ""Falstaff"", which was the last of his 28 operas, as he was approaching the age of 80. It was his second comedy, and his third work based on a Shakespeare play, following ""Macbeth"" and ""Otello"". The plot revolves around the thwarted, sometimes farcical, efforts of the fat"
"Un ballo in maschera discography This is a discography of Giuseppe Verdi's opera, ""Un ballo in maschera"". It was first performed at the Teatro Apollo in Rome on 17 February 1859. However, prior to the version of the opera which appears in the recordings below, Verdi had been using the title of ""Gustavo III"" and, when he was prohibited from using that title and after he was forced to make significant changes, the original version disappeared. It has been reconstructed, performed, and recorded as ""Gustavo III (Verdi)"". On the 5 Oct 2013 broadcast of BBC 3'S CD Review - Building"
"with this tradition might suffer as a consequence, as did Richard Wagner with his attempt to stage a revised ""Tannhäuser"" as a grand opera in Paris in 1861, which had to be withdrawn after three performances, partly because the ballet was in act 1. The most significant development—indeed transformation—of grand opera after the 1850s was its handling by Giuseppe Verdi, whose ""Les vêpres siciliennes"" (1855), proved to be more widely given in Italy and other Italian language opera houses than in France. The taste for luxury and extravagance at the French theatre declined after the 1848 revolution, and new productions"
"against his life, led by Jacob Johan Anckarström, whose goals were both personal and political. Anckarström, along with Carl Fredrik Pechlin, Adolph Ludvig Ribbing, Clas Fredrik Horn af Åminne, among others, conspired together against the King at Huvudsta gamla slott. Gustav III's own theater, ""Gustavianska operahuset"" was chosen as the crime scene. On 16 March 1792, Anckarström entered the theater during a masquerade, which granted him inconspicuous concealment, and shot Gustav III. The bullet was fired at close range and hit the King in the back, near his left hip. The King's company, a member of the Von Essen family,"
"Cassander is the murderer of Alexander and after his victory, ""Statira stabs herself on stage and, together with Olympia, she is called to the Lord by the spirit of Alexander, who emerges from his grave (in Voltaire's drama, Olympia is married to Antigonus and throws herself into the blazing pyre in a confession of her love for Cassander)."" Notes Sources Olimpie Olimpie (also spelled Olympie) is an opera in three acts by Gaspare Spontini. The French libretto, by Armand-Michel Dieulafoy and Charles Brifaut, is based on the play of the same name by Voltaire (1761). ""Olimpie"" was first performed on"
"composer Arrigo Boito the opportunity to help him to revise the original 1857 ""Simon Boccanegra"", a ""trial run"" to plant the idea of Verdi creating a new opera. They presented the revised ""Boccanegra"" in March 1881. In alliance with Verdi's wife and Verdi's friend, the conductor Franco Faccio, Ricordi's strategy was to lure the aging composer out of retirement to compose another opera. While this strategy took some years to achieve, it proved to be successful, as was the opera, ""Otello"", which brought Verdi great acclaim in Milan in 1887. It was followed by ""Falstaff"" in 1893, both set to"
"Verdi became determined to find another location for his opera. In March 1858, after contacting his friend, the sculptor Vincenzo Luccardi in Rome, and requesting information on the performances of a play ""Gustavo III"" currently being presented there, he proposed that Rome stage the work. Verdi sent the libretto of the opera under the name of ""Gustavo III"", which at that point was identical to ""Una vendetta"" but with the original setting and names restored. When Jacovacci, impresario of the Teatro Apollo (where ""Il trovatore"" had been presented successfully) received the libretto, his reaction was encouraging, but he warned the"