Un ballo in maschera tells the story of how King Gustav III of Sweden was stabbed during a masked ball in 1792. Based on a libretto written by Eugène Scribe, the opera was countless times refused by the Napolitan censorship. At a "sensitive" time for European monarchs which witnessed murder attempts against Fernand II and Napoleon III, censors didn't want Verdi's opera to spread ideas of regicide.

Forced to move Scribe's story to another location, Verdi chose Boston with its Governor Riccardo, a simple count whose murder would imply less serious political consequences. Subtly playing with contrasts, Verdi's opera transports us in a world where political conspiracies take place furtively, in the middle of a party, where seductive characters become manipulated by hostile forces and where deep feelings of impossible love mix with light comical interludes.