Ground Zero

This April 9, 2008 file photo shows a stage set with symbolic ruins of the World Trade Center is seen during a rehearsal of the new opera production 'A Masked Ball' (Un ballo in maschera) by Giuseppe Verdi under the direction of Austrian Johann Kresnik at the theatre in Erfurt, Germany. In a new interpretation of Verdi's 'A Masked Ball,' the tale loosely based on the assassination of Swedish King Gustav III aims to shock viewers with a contemporary backdrop of the smoking ruins of the World Trade Center, liberal doses of flabby flesh and Hitler in drag. The work of Johan Kresnik, who has never shied away from controversy, he said the aim of the production is to jar the way people see and hear opera.