Belisario: Part I - The Triumph, "Plauso! Voci di gioia!" (Antonina, Eutropio)-Gaetano Donizetti/Gianandrea Gavazzeni

PART I: ‘THE TRIUMPH’. SCENE I A large courtyard in the royal palace of Byzantium, with a throne to one side. A colonnade at the rear of the stage commands a view of the city beyond. Senators and populace are gathering to celebrate the triumph of the general Belisario, returning victorious from his campaigns in the Italian peninsular. His daughter Irene is among the foremost who are assembling to greet him, and she hastens to join the growing crowd outside. Her mother Antonina, on the other hand, shows no such eagerness. Entering with Eutropio, the head of the imperial guards and a man ambitious to become her paramour, she reveals her conviction that Belisario was responsible, many years earlier, for the death of their infant son, Alessi. In Belisario’s recent absence, one of his slaves, Proclo, has made a dying confession that his master had, when Alessi was an infant, ordered him to murder him. He had consequently carried the child forth from the city, but, unable to strike the blow, had abandoned him upon the seashore, there to perish or survive as fate should decree. Convinced that Alessi has long since perished, and now with this damning evidence to lay at Belisario’s door, Antonina has been plotting with Eutropio to encompass her husband’s destruction. Together they have had prepared forged documents which will incriminate him, showing him guilty of treason against the Emperor, Giustiniano. At Eutropio’s urging that she keep up appearances, Antonina, too, goes to join the crowds outside. Accompanied by his imperial guards, the Emperor Giustiniano enters and mounts the throne. The Triumph of Belisario takes place, with the general himself appearing crowned with laurels and wearing a purple mantle over his golden armour. He descends from his chariot and presents his trophies to Giustiniano, but pleads for the lives of his captives. Giustiniano acquiesces, placing their fate in his hands. As all disperse, Belisario sets his prisoners free. One, however, declines to depart: Alamiro, a young warrior who states that, if he were to be separated from Belisario, life would hold no meaning for him. Each, in fact, feels strongly attracted to the other, and since Alamiro declares that he is of Greek origin, Belisario invites him to enter his household, there to take the place of his long-lost son. Belisario is now joined by Irene and Antonina, but their reunion is very soon interrupted by Eutropio who comes demanding in the name of the Emperor that Belisario relinquish his sword. There is general consternation, but Belisario obeys, surrendering his weapon not to Eutropio but to a man he says he can respect as a warrior – Alamiro. Disarmed, he is led away by Eutropio and the guards. SCENE II. The Hall of the Senate. The Senators gather, wondering why they have been so hastily summoned. Giustiniano informs them that Belisario has been accused of a horrendous crime. Eutropio proceeds to narrate how, upon this very evening, it had been intended that the victorious troops should rise in rebellion, assassinating Giustiniano and proclaiming Belisario emperor in his place. Belisario vigorously denies the existence of any such plot, but is at a loss for an explanation when Eutropio produces the letters he had written home to Antonina, but now with treasonable sentences added in a handwriting imitated from – and identical with – his own. Far from supporting her husband, Antonina declares that the letters are exactly as she had received them, and then, when taxed by Belisario with betraying all her natural duties and sentiments as a wife, produces her trump card: the accusation that Belisario had organised the murder of Alessi. In his own defence, Belisario can only state that he had had a horrific dream in which he saw that Alessi, if he lived, would one day be responsible for shaking the Greek Empire to its foundations. He had therefore acted – against all his fatherly impulses – to protect his country. This defence is of no avail in the face of Antonina’s vehemence, and Belisario, condemned by all except Irene and Alamiro, is led away to prison.