Mercadante Il Giuramento on Orfeo

[Alan Howe]

I came across this live recording made at the Vienna State Opera in 1979. A couple of things struck me about it: firstly, it's apparently cut which is a great shame; secondly, however, it preserves at least one magnificent performance - that of Placido Domingo in the role of Viscardo di Benevento. And what that does is to raise the opera to a whole new level. Apparently Domingo learned the role in just four days as stand-in for the sick Peter Dvorsky (Domingo happened to be in Vienna making recordings), so rescuing the production. The result is quite magnificent - and it's clearly evident where the opera fits historically (it was first performed in 1837) because it sounds extraordinarily like early Verdi, except that Verdi hadn't written any of his operas by this date.

Now, I stress that the score is cut in this recording (although I don't by how much), but the performance is so superb - by far the best I've encountered in a work by this composer - that its stature comes shining through.

[eschiss1]

For those with lots of patience, the manuscript full score _is_ at IMSLP. (No idea at the moment if a published edition exists or printed vocal score either, will check later...)