Il Giustino relates the appearance of the goddess Fortune to the peasant Giustino, his rise to leadership of the Byzantine army and the defeat of a Scythian army under Vitaliano, and the jealousy of the emperor Anastasio, who suspects Giustino of having designs on his wife Arianna and on the throne itself. Will all the intrigues be foiled, the misunderstandings straightened out for a peasant to be proclaimed emperor? Il Giustino was originally composed for the 1724 Rome carnevale by Antonio Vivaldi to a libretto by Nicolò Beregan. Vivaldi's score is full of picturesque detail.
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