The libretto of Un ballo in maschera is as absurd as that of Il Trovatore, but it has an additional element, lacking in the earlier work. In Ballo Verdi for the first time brings to fruition (not extensively or grandly, but still significantly) his propensity towards comedy. The comic sense had made an appearance in Rigoletto: the Duke cannot be understood without his inclination towards laughter (or better towards smiling). In creating his new opera, Verdi added this disturbing element to Il Trovatore's lucid vision.

The libretto of Ballo is the only Verdian operatic text not to carry a signature, and the explanation for this lies in more than one direction. The librettist was a person of some distinction, and could have taken offence at seeing so little of his own work in the final text. On the other hand, Ballo presented Verdi with his greatest opportunity of approaching the technique of Wagner, who wrote his own libretti. The libretto of Ballo was not written by Verdi in the same sense that Wagner wrote the text of Die Meistersinger, but neither was it similar to Rigoletto and La Traviata, which both made use of die amanuensis Piave. It was written by the composer for want of anything better, because although Somma dedicated great efforts to it he was no Piave, and retained his literary pride.