It's time once again for Popehat Goes To The Opera, the feature in which I demonstrate that opera is more bizarre, ridiculous, and wonderful than you had realized.

Previously I defiled Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte and Wagner's Tannhauser. Let's give the Germans a rest and abuse an Italian, shall we? The prolific and talented Giuseppe Verdi — good old Joe Green himself — is as good a candidate as any. This edition's opera is Verdi's mid-career work Un Ballo In Maschera, or "A Masked Ball." No, there will be no testicular jokes. Opera is Serious Business.