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''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 dominò'' and ''Adelia degli Adimari'' - during which the setting was changed to vastly different locations. Eventually, it was agreed that it could be called ''Un ballo in maschera'', the one by which it is known today, but Verdi was forced to accept that the location of the story would have to be Colonial Boston. This setting became the "standard" one until the mid-20th Century. Most productions today locate the action in Sweden. However, a "hypothetical reconstruction" 〔Parker, p. 179〕 of ''Gustavo III'' under its original name was performed by the Gothenburg Opera in Sweden during the 2002/03 season. ==Composition history== In early 1856 Vincenzo Torelli, secretary to the Teatro San Carlo's management approached Verdi with a contract offer, the proposed opera being ''Re Lear'', an opera based on Shakespeare's ''King Lear''. It was known to be a subject dear to the composer,〔Budden, pp. 362-363〕 but this libretto, for which Somma and Verdi had worked for some time, raised concerns for Verdi, not the least of which was finding a suitable cast in Naples, given the practice of a company engaging a group of singers for an entire season and giving them the major roles to sing in all productions, thus forcing a composer to take into account their strengths and weaknesses in the roles he was creating.〔Verdi to Torelli, 17 June 1857, in Phillips-Matz, p. 370: "Believe me, it is a great mistake to risk ''Re Lear'' with a company of singers who, as good as they are, are not - one might say - made to order for these roles"〕 Even though it proved to be impracticable to continue with ''Re Lear'', Verdi signed a contract in February 1857 for performances during the 1857/58 carnival season, but, as the year progressed and with time running out, he had misgivings and failed to meet commitments regarding ''Lear''. Finally, in a letter which he wrote to Torelli in September 1857, Verdi confessed that he had "looked through an infinite number of plays.....but not one of them will do for me..."〔 but he then described an existing libretto which interested him, one which was written by the French playwright and librettist Eugene Scribe for Daniel Auber's very successful 1833 opera, ''Gustave III, ou Le bal masqué'': :"At present I'm scaling down a French drama, ''Gustavo III di Svezia'' (Note: Verdi's translation of the French title), libretto by Scribe, performed at the Opéra twenty years ago. It's vast and grandiose; it's beautiful....It is now too late to find other subjects."〔Verdi to Torelli, 19 September 1857, in Budden p.363〕 Verdi turned to the historical subject of King Gustav III of Sweden, who was shot while attending a masked ball in Stockholm in 1792 and died thirteen days later. Anckarström, his assassin, was executed. Although noting it as "a French drama", 〔Baldini, p. 248: Roger Parker, as editor and translator of ''The Story of Giuseppe Verdi'' challenges Baldini's statement that ''Gustave'' was a play, and he asserts that it was only an opera libretto written for Auber's opera〕 Verdi was referring to Scribe's libretto, and this became the source of Somma's libretto. In his version, Scribe had retained the names of some of the historical figures involved including Gustave, Anckarström (the king's secretary and his best friend), Ulrica Arfvidsson (the fortune teller), and conspirators Ribbing and Horn; the conspiracy itself; and the killing at the masked ball. As noted by Budden, Scribe invented much of the rest of the action, including Gustav's romance with the fictional Amélie〔Patrick Dillon, "Unlucky Lady: Who is Amelia?", ''Opera News'', December 2012, Vol. 77, #6, p. 20: Dillon notes that "it doesn't matter that there was, historically, no "real" Amelia" and further that, for Scribe, "convention demanded a leading lady" therefore "Amélie, comtesse d'Ankastrom" in Auber's opera.〕 (Anckarström's wife) and he added characters and situations such as the page boy, Oscar. "It was a simple case of 'cherchez la femme'"〔Budden, p. 364〕 says Budden, who sees Scribe using the romance as the reason for the murder (rather than the purely political motive behind the actual event) and he describes the plot of Scribe's libretto as "cleverly constructed...in which irony follows irony. It abounds in striking situations and ''coups de théatre''; it offers opportunities for a display of the most intense and varied emotions; and it is full of suspense."〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gustavo III (Verdi)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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