Editing Belisario (section)

==Composition history==
With the success of ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' in September 1835, Donizetti moved on to stagings of ''[[Maria Stuarda]]'', the first under that name at La Scala in late 1835. He had signed the contract in July 1835 to present ''Belisario'' in Venice, for what would be the first visit to that city since 1819, but it was not until October that the subject was finally agreed upon.

There followed discussions with impresario Natale Fabbrici about employing a Venetian librettist, Pietro Beltrame. However, not only did the composer prefer to work with a librettist known to him and with whom he could work in close proximity,<ref name=COMM>Commons 2013, pp. 12–14: "It would be imprudent to have the poet so far removed from the maestro" Donizetti had noted in a letter of 24 October.</ref> but he had already begun working with Cammarano who was revising – to the composer's satisfaction – an earlier version of ''Belisario''<ref>Ashbrook 1982, pp. 103–105</ref> which the librettist had submitted to the [[Teatro San Carlo]] management in 1832.<ref name=COMM/>

Of greater concern to Donizetti was the singers who were to be engaged. Primarily, he was concerned about the identity of the leading tenor: "Until I know for sure, I cannot compose duets, finales and trios", he writes in October.<ref>Donizetti to Fabbrici, 24 October 1835 in Ashbrook 1982, p. 106</ref> By the time Donizetti arrived in Venice on 6 January 1836, the score of ''Belisario'' was almost finished, and because of delays, he had time to hear several of the proposed singers in a performance of Rossini's ''[[L'assedio di Corinto]]'' given on 12 January, the day before rehearsals of ''Belisario'' were to begin.

In the case of Antonietta Vial (who was to sing the role of Irene and whom he described on first hearing her as "both a bastard soprano and a veiled contralto",<ref>Donizetti to [[Giovanni Ricordi]], 1 February 1836, in Commons 2013, p. 20</ref> he was able to make adjustments to suit her vocal limitations. By the time of the first performance, which was well received, Donizetti reported to his publisher the audience's reaction to most of the numbers, specifically that "in the duet for Vial and Salvatore, many shouts of ''bravi'', but at the end (so they say) the situation is so moving that they were weeping".<ref>Donizetti to Ricordi, 5 February 1836, in Ashbrook 1982, p. 107</ref>

In a review of a 2011 London performance, some of the strengths of Donizetti's score are outlined:
<blockquote>The central couple are played by bass and soprano, which brings Verdi's ''Macbeth'' immediately to mind. But Donizetti's score has none of Verdi's furious compression, and dramatically we are in very different territory. Belisario and Antonina, the latter more Regan than Lady Macbeth, are at each others' throats rather than united by desire for power. Her machinations lead to his being blinded then expelled from Byzantium into the natural world beyond. The emotional centre lies, however, in Donizetti's forceful depiction of Belisario's relationship with his strong-willed daughter Irene – you think at once of Cordelia – and his eventual reunion with Alamiro, the son who vanished in infancy and in whose supposed murder Belisario is implicated.<ref name="Ashley">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/feb/21/belisario-review|title=''Belisario'' – Review|author=Tim Ashley|date=21 February 2011|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|location=London|access-date=1 September 2011}}</ref></blockquote>