About the work
Amelia al ballo is a one-act opera buffa by Gian Carlo Menotti to his own Italian libretto, written while he was studying at the Curtis Institute. Its premiere, in an English translation as Amelia Goes to the Ball, took place on April 1, 1937, at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia and became Menotti's first major success.
Plot
The vain Amelia is determined to attend the season's ball, but her husband discovers a love letter from their neighbour and flies into a jealous rage. Amid a farcical struggle involving a torn rope, a jammed pistol and a broken vase, Amelia strikes her husband with the vase and blames the injury on a supposed burglar. In the end she charms the responding police captain into escorting her to the ball after all.
Cultural significance
American critics such as Time praised the opera in 1937 for its sharp, stage-effective music; the reference work Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart lists it as the breakthrough that first made Menotti's comic voice known in the United States.