Nuova Era 7179/80	Fonit Cetra FBN 82	Memories 4174	HRE 223-2 (LP)
Elaisa	Giovanna De Liso	Jolanta Omilian	Patricia Wells	Annabelle Bernard
Bianca	Martine Olmeda	Carmen Gonzales	Beverly Wolff	Agnes Baltsa
Viscardo	Giuseppe Morino	Piero Visconti	Michele Molese	Jose Carreras
Manfredo	Marc Barrard	Luigi De Corato	G. B. Colmagro	Robert Kerns
Conductor	Giuliano Carella	Bruno Campanella	Thomas Schippers	Gerd Albrecht

My first choice is the Nuova Era recording conducted by Giuliano Carella because of the presence of a "star" tenor, Giuseppe Morino, who exhibits some wonderful top notes, and because of the fine presentation which includes a libretto, and, separately a translation in French. There are several other recordings, some being without any libretto. Another version available at one time on LP was a Vienna broadcast from 1974 with Mara Zampieri and Placido Domingo. It is difficult to recommend this version because the baritone aria in the third act is omitted.

Il Giuramento is easily Mercadante's most successful opera, and is also generally seen as his best. The plot is derived from the same literary source as Ponchielli's later La gioconda; with Elaisa being equivalent to the title role in the Ponchielli work, Bianca equalling Laura, Viscardo Enzo, and Manfredo being a combination of a much less malevolent Barnaba and Alvise Badoero. It also marks several significant examples of the composer's experimentation with the forms normally seen in bel canto operas. The opening scene can be cited as one of these. It begins with a chorus in praise of Elaisa, is followed by a short cavatina for Viscardo, a brief reprise of the chorus, another cavatina by Manfredo, and finally a repeat of a fragment of the opening chorus. This is a notable example of combining what would normally have been several separate numbers into a continuous whole, and was a device that Mercadante was to use again in Il bravo and several subsequent works.

But it in the final scene that Mercadante's most important innovations take place. True, other composers, especially Donizetti in Lucrezia Borgia had tried unsuccessfully to eliminate or at least shorten the soprano's (or, occasionally, some other star singer) inalienable right to have the stage to herself for an extended final scene. But Mercadante succeeded, and may well have sounded what was to be the death knell to the age of bel canto. Instead of such an extended solo aria, the final scene now is a highly dramatic and violent confrontation between Elaisa and Viscardo, which ends with him killing her (she does live long enough for a brief solo at the end).

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