This recording offers excellent sound (with some tape hiss) that presents the singers’ voices and orchestra clearly and in fine balance. The performance appears to be a concert presentation of the opera, with no audible stage action, all performers close by, and audience applause heard from a distance. The score is severely cut, with most recitatives and repeats omitted and many pieces abruptly shortened, but it does present a vibrant case for Mercadante’s rarely heard music. Particularly interesting is the composer’s penchant for including obbligato parts (usually for wind instruments) that complement and comment on the vocal lines. There is also a long and interesting cello solo in the moody introduction of the fourth act. The recording is also significant in preserving a rare performance of the pioneer African-American soprano Annabelle Bernard (1935-2005). She was one of a group of Black soloists, including Leontyne Prince, Grace Bumbry, and Martina Arroyo, who left the US for Europe in the early 1960s to seek operatic roles that segregation made difficult for them to obtain at home. While the others returned and gained international recognition, Bernard joined a repertory ensemble with the Deutsche Opera Berlin and remained there for her career. She performed a wide range of music, from Mozart to Verdi/Puccini leads to experimental 20th-century roles. But she rarely recorded, and this is one of only two of her live performances known to survive. (A recording also exists of her 1966 Berthe in a German-language performance of Meyerbeer’s Le Prophete, with McCracken as Jean.) Bernard’s role, Elaisa, is the soprano lead, and historians have noted that in this opera Mercadante famously deprives the diva of any major solo scene. (The other characters do get solo scenes, complete with cabalettas, and in this performance Agnes Baltsa, Jose Carreras, and Robert Kerns each make the most of them.) Thus most of Bernard’s work is comes during duets and ensembles. She brings a dramatic fierceness to her part (similar to Sills), scoring with powerful high notes and passages, as well as a sweet softness more tender moments. On the other hand, she sometimes suggests rather than sings coloratura (while Baltsa is fully on the mark with her roulades, especially in the ladies’ competitive act 2 duet). And the final high note of her only major aria, in the “Suicidio” scene of the last act, is not quite certain in its intonation. Still her home audience gives her a lengthy and respectful ovation. Bernard deserves attention from opera historians, and it was sad to see her name omitted from the cover of this release and not mentioned in the site’s description of the recording.For the rest, I agree with other reviewers: Baltsa does a fine job with her Act 1 scene and gets huzzahs from the audience for it, and they also cheer on the newbie Carreras in a role that shows his dramatic verve. As the jealous husband, Kerns impresses with his moody Act 2 solo in the family tomb, an innovative scene with an offstage chorus that prefigures Trovatore’s “Miserare.” Though the many cuts make the action hard to follow, even with a libretto in hand, conductor Gerd Albrecht still makes a strong case for getting to know Mercadante better.

I loved it. Excellent singing from young singers.

I very much enjoyed this recording of a work that is new to me. The music is really wonderful and the performances here are great. Carreras is superb and Baltsa sings very beautifully. I was not familiar with Lucy Peacock and I enjoyed her performance as well. If you want to get to know this work..this recording will more than satisfy you.

Mercadante's opera was taken from the same source material as La Gioconda but has been eclipsed by Ponchelli's later opera, Ponchelli having a better libretto to work with. A contemporary of Verdi Mercadante was a major composer as 'Il Giuramento' clearly shows. The music is constantly lyrical peppered with beautiful and beguiling arias and ensembles.This production was fortunate in it's exceptional cast. Carreras as Viscardo is at his ardent best, still in his prime. The two ladies in his life are particularly admirable. Agnes Baltsa is the lady he loves. She gives a powerhouse performance, her fluid voice and seamless phrasing making the most of her meaty role. American soprano Annabell Bernard's bright strong voice is an ideal counterpoint to Baltsa, as the woman Viscardo spurns. American baritone Robert Kerns is an added attraction as Manfredo ( Barnaba in Gioconda)The sound is good in spite of some infelitious balance between voices and orchestra. As recordings of this tremendous opera are few this is a valuable item for the collector.

A young Jose Carreras sang the lead tenor role in this 1974 Berlin performance, while Placido Domingo sang performances in Vienna. The Domingo performance has appeared in an official commercial CD release on Orfeo and is urgently recommended. This Berlin performance offers us Carreras , in stellar and plangent voice, with Agnes Baltsa, in equally fine voice. IL GIURAMENTO is perhaps Saverio Mercadante's finest stage work, and deserves more familiarity and more presentations in the world's opera houses. Despite a convoluted plot, the music and Mercadante's ability to make his characters come alive, places this work above others in his oeuvre. There are two remarkable arias for the lead tenor and a superb final denouement/scene that compares well with Verdi. The sound is good broadcast sound. The more I listen to IL GIURAMENTO the higher I value it. Recommended.

Really loved it. Totally new to me. Listened to it twice.

Two corrections: Brunoro is William Wu (not: Win), the date of the performance is Sept. 21 (not: 23), 1974. It was a marvellous performance corresponging to “La Gioconda”, given also 1974 at Deutsche Oper Berlin (West) – not: Deutsche Staatsoper (that time the opera house of Berlin-East).