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 outline of the opera was complete, and Verdi began to create musical sketches of significant scenes. At the same time, word came of the seven requirements imposed by the Naples censorship. These included that (i) "The King must become a Duke"; (ii) "the action must be transferred to a pre-Christian age"; (iii) the conspirators must not hate the Duke because they wanted to take power; and (iv) "no firearms". Somma had several suggestions, including a possible new title, "Il duca Ermanno" with a 12th Century setting, which Verdi rejected; but he did accept the proposed change to Pomerania. The