Giuseppe Verdi (1813 - 1901) Opera "Un ballo in maschera" had its libretto in the person of Gustav III. of Sweden. He was regarded as an enlightened monarch, and wanted to abolish privileges of the nobility, while he made enemies. On March 16, 1792, the King was shot on a masquerade ball in the Stockholm Opera before the eyes of the ball company of masked count Johann Jakob Anckarström and died two weeks later of a blood poisoning. The act of the opera had explosives, the librettist Antonio Somm...