Using Verdi's Un ballo in maschera (1859) and in particular Riccardo's cavatina ‘La rivedrà nell'estasi', as its primary example, the article seeks to contribute to current discussions on how to grasp Verdi's articulation of musico-dramatic form, analytically. The article favours an approach in which historiographical concerns are incorporated centrally into the analytical enterprise. As part of that project, it also compares the musico-dramatic structure of the first part of the Introduzione of Verdi's opera with that of Auber's Gustave, ou le bal masqué (1833), on whose libretto Un ballo was based.