A contingent of soldiers passes through, marching to the harbour, followed by Anita and Pierrino, knapsacks in their hands. Manuele returns with.a present of a coral necklace for Giuditta, but he becomes anxious when be discovers that she is nowhere to be found. A ship's siren is heard in the distance, as the Aurora prepares to sail for Africa. Then Manuele spots the empty birdcage, just as a fisherman runs up to report that he has seen Giuditta on board the ship with Octavio. Manuele takes a few helpless steps in the direction of the harbour, calling his wife's name and holding the coral necklace helplessly in his hand. Scene 2 Anita and Pierrino arrive at Octavio's villa in a small garrison town on the north coast of Africa. Their happy plans all went awry and now they are broke and have come to see if Octavio and Giuditta can give them work. They are a little hesitant about ringing the bell, but when eventually they do they get no answer. Love seems to have made Giuditta and Octavio deaf to the world. Finally Giuditta appears at the door and, when the pair relate their unhappy story, she offers to give Anita a job while Pierrino returns home to set up his old trade again. Then he will come back to many her. Octavio's voice is heard in the background and Giuditta confesses to Anita how much she is in love. For them, at least, the rash decision was the right one. Octavio is disturbed, however, by a report from his lieutenant that the regiment may have to move on. He determines to keep this news from Giuditta and hurries the man away. When Giuditta reappears, they swear their love for each other. He declares that she is as beautiful as the blue summer night, while she responds that she finds every day as beautiful as a lovely fairytale dream. Giuditta has promised to put Pierrino up for the night and has offered him and Anita an attic room. However, since Anita insists that nothing improper should take place before they are married, Pierrino has to take alternative accommodation in the servants' quarters. When Giuditta and Octavio are out of the way, he looks enquiringly up at Anita in her attic, puts a ladder up to her window and scrambles up into her waiting arms. Scene 3 It is late evening and the military encampment is lit by moonlight and lamps as the soldiers sing of their eternal lot—marching through the barren, hot desert by day, finding female company at an oasis by night. Octavio has still not told Giuditta that they are due to move off, and, he thinks of their parting with despair, convinced- that she will not remain faithful to him. 'Her father a Spaniard, her mother a Moroccan dancer. African blood flows in her veins—southern, hot blood. You should see her dance! In her dancing you can see the whole wild, sensual heat of the south.' Despite all Antonio's efforts to, reassure him, Octavio declares that he cannot bring himself to leave Giuditta, and the soldiers' singing echoes his thoughts on the fickleness of womankind. as Octavio wonders at the way two people who were strangers yesterday can today be helplessly bound up together. He grabs his cloak and kepi and is about to move off when Giuditta appears in the lamplight. She has been waiting for him at the villa, becoming more and more worried. Now he tells her that he must leave her The regiment is moving on She accuses him of having tired of her and will not listen when he tries to make her understand that he must do his duty. She tells him that:he must prove his love by coming away with her and, as she speaks, her pleading begins to,have its effect on him. He presses her to him and, when the trumpet sounds, he pretends not to hear it. Antonio comes to tell him that it is time to go, but Octavio declares that he cannot. Finally his sense of duty reasserts itself and with death in his heart, he marches off. Left alone, Giuditta, in a frenzy of frustrated passion, breaks down in dreadful weeping. Scene 4 Parted from Octavio, Giuditta has decided to become a night club dancer and she appears in the Alcazar night club of a large North African city, winning tremendous applause with her sensuous dance routine. In the middle of it all, she lapses for a moment into a In the middle of it all, she lapses for a moment into
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