Characters
| Richard, Count of Warwick and Governor of Boston (or Riccardo, Duke of Olivares and Governor of Naples) | Tenor | ||
| Amelia (Adelia) | Soprano | ||
| Reinhart (Renato), secretary to the Governor and husband of Amelia | Baritone | ||
| Samuel | } | enemies of the Governor | Bass |
| Tom (Tommaso) | } | ||
| Silvan, a sailor | Soprano | ||
| Oscar (Edgardo), a page | Soprano | ||
| Ulrica, a negress astrologer | Contralto | ||
A judge, a servant of Amelia, populace, guards, etc., conspirators, maskers, and dancing couples.
Place—Boston, or Naples.
Time—Late seventeenth or middle eighteenth century.
The English libretto of "Un Ballo in Maschera," literally "A Masked Ball," but always called by us "The Masked Ball," has the following note:
"The scene of Verdi's 'Ballo in Maschera' was, by the author of the libretto, originally laid in one of the European cities. But the government censors objected to this, probably, because the plot contained the record of a successful conspiracy against an established prince or governor. By a change of scene to the distant, and, to the author, little-known, city of Boston, in America, this difficulty seems to have been obviated. The fact should be borne in mind by Bostonians and others, who may be somewhat astonished at the events which are supposed to have taken place in the old Puritan city."
Certainly the events in "The Masked Ball" are amazing for the Boston of Puritan or any other time, and it was only through necessity that the scene of the opera was laid there. Now that political reasons for this no longer exist, it is usually played with the scene laid in Naples.
Auber produced, in 1833, an opera on a libretto by Scribe, entitled "Gustave III., ou Le Bal Masqué." Upon this Scribe libretto the book of "Un Ballo in Maschera" is based. Verdi's opera was originally called "Gustavo III.," and, like the Scribe-Auber work, was written around the assassination of Gustavus III., of Sweden, who, March 16, 1792, was shot in the back during a masked ball at Stockholm.