Edited by Prof. Raffaele Mellace, Full Professor of Musicology and History of Music, Dean of the School of Humanities at the University of Genoa and scientific advisor to the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, and Prof. Stefano Fernando Verdino, Full Professor of Italian Literature at the University of Genoa and literary critic.
A key opera in Verdi’s career, Un ballo in maschera was born with difficulty, after a bitter struggle with censorship, but immediately enjoyed an extraordinary success that established it among the masterpieces of 19th-century musical theatre worldwide. Verdi himself cared a great deal about this profoundly innovative opera. Having left behind tragic masterpieces such as Nabucco or La traviata, the challenge here is to tackle a complex and fascinating theme: the mixture of tragic and comic, of lightness and depth. Staging the most intense passions at the light step of joking and dancing. A great fresco of our humanity in which nothing is missing.
For students enrolled at the University of Genoa, participation in the introductory meetings and the performance of the works may lead to the recognition of training credits, if envisaged by the course of study they are enrolled in, to which they should refer for information. A prerequisite is, of course, to have the theatre staff register one’s attendance at the meetings.
