Director David Alden On Verdi’s Ballo In Maschera

“Gustavo is a dreamer and a fantasist – a king who wants to escape his duties, who initiates an affair with the wife of his staunchest defender almost to create his own assassin (Christ and Judas?) – a king who laughingly (how many kinds of laughter there are in this piece, ranging from light to diabolical to desperate) plots his own death step by step.”