Murder! Riccardo, Count of Warwick has been killed. While preparations for the bal masqué are going on he is already warned of plots against his life, but he refuses to listen. When fortune-teller Ulrica predicts that the first man to shake his hand will be the one who kills him, he laughs away the warning. His friend and secretary Renato shakes his hand among a cheering crowd. Renato, however, does not know that his wife Amelia is secretly in love with Riccardo and that he, in turn, quite likes Amelia too. When Renato suspects adultery he decides to join the leaders of the plot against Riccardo. At the bal masqué Renato stabs Riccardo, but the dying count tells Renato that Amelia never broke her marriage vows… ‘Un Ballo in Maschera’ is suspenseful like a thriller, but with a passion that only Verdi’s operas possess. Opera.
