The Plush Era of Music in the U.S.: American Concert Life Since 1861 (date unknown)

On February 20, 1861, President-elect Abraham Lincoln attended a performance of Verdi’s opera Un Ballo in Maschera at the New York Academy of Music. It was, of course, the censored version, in which the original libretto dealing with the historical assassination of Gustavus III, King of Sweden was revised to eliminate the perilous suggestion of regicide, and replaced by the murder of a mythical “Governor of Boston” named Riccardo.