Opera (1987)

Director:

Dario Argento

Writers:

Dario Argento (screenplay)
Dario Argento (story)
(more)

Release Date:

19 December 1987 (Italy)

Genre:

Crime | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

obsession. murder. madness.

Plot:

A young opperata is stalked by a deranged fan bent on killing the people associated with her to claim her for himself.

Plot Keywords:

Stabbed In The Chin | Female Nudity | Cult Director | Disturbing | Exploding Head

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Cristina Marsillach	...	Betty
Ian Charleson	...	Marco
Urbano Barberini	...	Inspector Alan Santini
Daria Nicolodi	...	Mira
Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni	...	Giulia
Antonella Vitale	...	Marion
William McNamara	...	Stefano
Barbara Cupisti	...	Signora Albertini
Antonino Iuorio	...	Baddini (as Antonio Juorio)
Carola Stagnaro	...	Alma's mother
Francesca Cassola	...	Alma
Maurizio Garrone	...	Maurizio, the raven trainer
Cristina Giachino	...	Maria, the assistant director
György Gyõriványi	...	Miro
Bjorn Hammer	...	Cop #1
Peter Pitsch	...	Mara Czekova's assistant
Sebastiano Somma	...	Cop #2
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Elizabeth Norberg-Schulz	...	Lady Macbeth (soprano) (singing voice)
Michele Pertusi	...	Macbeth (bass) (singing voice)
Dario Argento	...	Narrator (Italian version) (voice) (uncredited)
Michele Soavi	...	Inspector Daniele Soave (uncredited)

Directed by
Dario Argento

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Dario Argento		screenplay
Dario Argento		story
Franco Ferrini		writer

Produced by
Dario Argento	....	producer
Ferdinando Caputo	....	executive producer

Cinematography by
Ronnie Taylor

Film Editing by
Franco Fraticelli

Production Design by
Davide Bassan

Costume Design by
Lia Francesca Morandini		(as Francesca Lia Morandini)

Makeup Department
Franco Casagni	....	makeup artist
Ferdinando Merolla	....	hair stylist
Rosario Prestopino	....	key makeup artist
Angelo Vannella	....	hair stylist

Production Management
Verena Baldeo	....	production supervisor
Alessandro Calosci	....	production supervisor
Fabrizio Diaz	....	unit manager
Olivier Gérard	....	unit manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Antonio Gabrielli	....	first assistant director
Alessandro Ingargiola	....	second assistant director
Michele Soavi	....	second unit director
Paolo Zenatello	....	first assistant director

Art Department
Gian Maurizio Fercioni	....	production designer: opera set (as Gianmaurizio Fercioni)
Maurizio Jacopelli	....	property master
Renato Lori	....	assistant art director
Osvaldo Monaco	....	property master
Valeria Paoloni	....	set dresser
Antonio Tarolla	....	assistant art director

Sound Department
Nick Alexander	....	sound editor
Giancarlo Laurenzi	....	sound mixer
Romano Pampaloni	....	dubbing mixer
Stefano Rossi	....	boom operator
Federico Savina	....	stereo sound consultant: Dolby Stereo

Special Effects by
Renato Agostini	....	special effects designer
Antonio Corridori	....	special effects suplier
Giovanni Corridori	....	special effects suplier
Germano Natali	....	special effects suplier
Germano Natali	....	special effects
Sergio Stivaletti	....	animatronics

Camera and Electrical Department
Roberto de Franceschi	....	clapper loader
Massimo Intoppa	....	assistant camera
Maurizio Lucchini	....	assistant camera
Enrico Maggi	....	camera operator: second unit
Fernando Massaccesi	....	gaffer (as Ferdinando Massaccesi)
Gianfranco Massa	....	still photographer
Ugo Menegatti	....	assistant camera
Roberto Nicosia	....	still photographer (as Roberto Nicosia Vinci)
Nicola Pecorini	....	steadicam operator
Ennio Picconi	....	key grip
Luca Robecchi	....	director of photography: second unit
Antonio Scaramuzza	....	camera operator
Renato Tafuri	....	director of photography: second unit
Franco Vitale	....	still photographer

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Enrica Barbano	....	wardrobe assistant
Francesca Grandi	....	seamstress

Editorial Department
Piero Bozza	....	assistant film editor
Alessandro Gabriele	....	assistant film editor
Roberto Priori	....	second assistant film editor

Other crew
Angelo Cavallo	....	production secretary
Carlo Du Bois	....	accountant
Egle Friggeri	....	production secretary
Maurizio Garrone	....	animal trainer
Enrico Lucherini	....	publicist
Cinzia Malatesta	....	script supervisor
Francesco Marras	....	production secretary
Barbara Morosetti	....	assistant: Sergio Stivaletti
Gianluca Pignatelli	....	publicist
Robert Rietty	....	adr director
Renato Rinaldo	....	chief accountant
Paola Rossi	....	production secretary
Federica Zappalà	....	accountant

Production Companies

• ADC Films
• Cecchi Gori Group Tiger Cinematografica

Distributors

• Anchor Bay Entertainment (USA) (DVD)
• Anchor Bay Entertainment (USA) (VHS)
• First Release Video (1980s) (Australia) (VHS)
• Globo Vídeo (Brazil) (VHS)
• J. Arthur Rank Film Distributors (1990) (UK)
• Vivivideo (Italy) (VHS)

Special Effects

• Germano Natali

Other Companies

• Teatro Regio di Parma  filmed at
• Arco 2  lighting
• Cinevox Records  soundtrack
• Costumi d'Arte  costumes
• De Paolis I.N.C.I.R.  stages (as De Paolis IN.CI.R. - Rome)
• Gambit International  recorded by
• International Recordings  recorded by
• Orchestra Sinfonica dell'Emilia-Romagna "Arturo Toscanini"  orchestra (as "Arturo Toscanini Symphonic Orchestra" of Emilia and Romagna)
• Romana Trasporti Cinematografici S.r.l.  transport

Also Known As:

Terror at the Opera (USA)

Runtime:

107 min | USA:88 min (edited version)

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Canada:16+ (Quebec) | Italy:VM14 (re-rating) | USA:R (heavily cut) | Argentina:18 | Australia:R | Canada:R | Finland:K-18 | Italy:VM18 | Norway:18 | UK:18 | USA:Unrated | West Germany:18

Filming Locations:

Lugano, Canton Ticino, Switzerland

Company:

ADC Films

Trivia:

The ending of the movie is inspired by the ending of Thomas Harris's book "Red Dragon". In an interview in Luca M. Palmerini's book "Spaghetti Nightmares", Dario Argento states that he did not like Michael Mann's Manhunter (1986), the first film adaptation of "Red Dragon" which used a completely different ending from the one in the novel, but is a fan of Harris's novel. (Ted Tally's screenplay for Red Dragon (2002) later adapted this ending more faithfully.)

Quotes:

Betty: I am nothing like my mother. Nothing like her!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Saw II (2005)

Soundtrack:

Sempre libera

Betty is not an entirely normal girl

I've noticed that a lot of people are taking Opera to task for the way Betty reacts to the murders. I think they are basing these complaints on how they imagine a "normal" person would react. The thing is...Betty is not a "normal" person, due to traumatic events in her childhood. She has problems way way before the movie ever even starts...and by the end of Opera...in my opinion...she has become totally unhinged.

---------------------SPOILERS--------------------------------------- You have to keep in mind that when she was a very small child she witnessed her mother's lover commit at least one brutal murder while her sadomasochist mother was getting off watching it.

She was raised by a woman who achieves sexual release tied up watching girls get hacked, slashed, and strangled to death. That does not make for a healthy home life. I think it's pretty easy to conclude that her mother would have employed all sorts of emotional manipulation and negative reinforcement to ensure that her daughter never snitched on her. It is also likely that at her impressionable age, Betty might have been deeply confused by what she saw. Is this just something that adults do, etc.

Betty obviously looks up to her mother...I mean...she's become an opera singer just like her. If mommy likes it it can't be bad, can it...mommy can't be bad, can she? She couldn't tell the police on her mommy or this mysterious hooded fellow she associates with mommy.

Betty has a lot of deep-seated emotional issues. Her mind has for years been trying to block out the memory of what she saw her mother doing...but it keeps coming to the surface, manifesting itself in the form of horrible nightmares, skull-throbbing migraines, a dependence on relaxation techniques, and sexual frigidity She associates brutal violence/bloody death with sex on a subconscious level. There's an inner struggle between the part of Betty that has confused murder/sex and the part of her which believes these things to be wrong.

After she's seen her boyfriend murdered by the hooded man...she calls the police, yet is unwilling to give her name. The part of her that thinks murder is wrong forces her to make the call, but the part that is ambivalent won't allow her to admit personal involvement. The ambivalent part of her takes control before she can go all the way. So she walks away from the phone in the rain...and when she's picked up by the director she's acting surprisingly calm, not as upset as you would think a "normal" person would be...because the part of her that's been blocking stuff since she was a child is trying its damnedest to block the horror of what she's just witnessed.

The state of affairs in her life all contribute to an impasse within Betty's psyche. Her singing career is starting to bear fruit...she's going to be a great opera singer like her mother was. But is she going to become like her mother in all ways? In the darker ways? Or will she be able to make her own path? Add this to the re-emergence of the hooded man murdering everyone around her.

It's not until the hooded man kills Daria Nicolodi's character that Betty really takes an active role in defeating the killer. Here's someone who loves Betty, who's supported her wholeheartedly in her emerging career, who is in fact a maternal figure in Betty's life now since mommy's dead. Imagine how terrible it would be to lose your real mother and then to see the woman who is the closest thing you have to a mother get shot through the eyeball.

I could go on...but I won't. The main gist of what I'm saying is that the character of Betty is a lot more complex than most of the reviewers on here have been willing to acknowledge.

Opera is one of Argento's best...and not just for the visuals alone (although they are truly magnificent) and not just for the inventive murders (although they are). There is a depth here...and attention needs to be paid.