Di' tu se fedele (Riccardo, Atto I) (Un ballo in maschera)

The Teatro San Carlo in Naples commissioned the work in 1857 and the censors refused it: a monarch was not to be murdered on stage. After the attempt on Napoleon III in January 1858 the objections hardened, Verdi broke his contract and took the score to Rome, where the final compromise moved the action out of Europe altogether — Stockholm became colonial Boston, and Gustav III became Riccardo, Count of Warwick. The premiere at the Teatro Apollo on 17 February 1859 succeeded at once. The displacement did no damage: the subject is a court where affection, superstition and conspiracy share the same rooms.