Vivaldi's setting of Nicolò Beregan's dramma per musica Giustino premiered at the Teatro Capranica in Rome, during the carnival celebrations of 1724. Beregan's libretto had been adapted for Vivaldi by Pietro Pariati, but it still had trouble getting approved by the censors. The original opera had been planned as a spectacular extravaganza. The plot took historical figures and facts from classical sources and added fictional love intrigues, allegorical figures, deities, and a ghost. Vivaldi borrowed a good deal of material from earlier operas and instrumental works to construct his score, including music from La Primavera of The Four Seasons, two of his instrumental concerti, and ten different operas. The score is rich in rhythmic life, and much is written in what the critics of the time called the "new Lombard" style: French rhythms used incessantly to create a particular texture or character. "Il piacer della vendetta" in Act III is a revenge aria which makes use of a vigorous rhythmic texture to express violent emotion. Vivaldi also shows his flair for imaginative instrumentation throughout. One of the orchestral highlights of the opera closes the second act. Here Vivaldi writes a virtuosic da capo aria with a psaltery obbligato part to an accompaniment of pizzicato strings. The end of the opera closes with one of Vivaldi's magnificent choruses. His chorus "Dopo i nembi e le procelle" makes use of a chaconne bass, intricate counterpoint, and is composed in eight sections, with eight full statements of the ground bass. Strings and oboes open with a ritornello and are followed by the first statement, which is for soprano voices only. The next four statements are for full chorus, and make use of elaborate counterpoint and contrasting thematic material and varying textures. In the sixth statement, eighth-note runs emerge from the depths of the lower voices and pass up through to the sopranos. The seventh statement contains chromatic writing for the strings and solo music for Giustino and Arianna. The full orchestra and chorus return for the final statement of the ground bass, and a brief coda rounds off the number.

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