Royal Swedish Opera architect Carl Fredrik Adelcrantz was commissioned by King Gustav III, a strong adherent of the ideal of an enlightened absolutism and as such was a great patron of the arts. The Swedish Opera company had first been located in Bollhuset, but there was a need to separate the Opera from the theatre and give them separate buildings. Construction began in 1775 and the theatre was inaugurated on 30 September 1782 with a performance of the German composer Johann Gottlieb Naumann's "Cora och Alonzo". It was also the place for public masquerade balls, events inspired from the famous opera-balls in Paris,
Giuseppe Verdi except in the matter of sunrise, which he likes to see up and dressed, and I from my bed." Nonetheless on 15 May, Verdi signed a contract with La Fenice for an opera for the following spring. This was to be "Simon Boccanegra". The couple stayed in Paris until January 1857 to deal with these proposals, and also the offer to stage the translated version of "Il trovatore" as a grand opera. Verdi and Strepponi travelled to Venice in March for the premiere of "Simon Boccanegra", which turned out to be "a fiasco" (as Verdi reported, although on the second