Gustavo III (Verdi) 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": 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
Gustavo III (Verdi) the opera. Basing it as he did on the skeleton score of "Una vendetta", Verdi transformed the setting and characters' names to fit the requirements. The score's text required modification to agree with "Ballo" and not "Una vendetta", orchestration was completed, and musical changes and adjustments were made. Significant changes in the music occurred after 11 September and are also detailed by Gossett. The first performance of the new opera was presented on 17 February 1859. By about 1870, after "Ballo" had become successful and when Italian unification removed much of regional censorship, Verdi could probably have returned the opera