Opera finds the
soprano starring in a production of Verdi’s Macbeth
being stalked by a masked killer. Instead of targeting the life of the singer
(Christina Marscillach), he merely forces her to watch while he slays other
folks in her theatrical inner circle. He ensures her peepers remain open by Scotch-taping
rows of needles under her eyelids. If you’re like me and have a thing about
your eyes, these scenes are almost impossible to watch (oh, the irony!).
Like any Argento picture, Opera is not a matter of plot. It is the sum total of Argento’s
audacious flights of fancy and weirdly poetic extreme violence. We get plenty
of this stuff with a disorienting opening filmed in the first-person pov, a
gory raven raid on an opera audience, and of course, that vicious gimmick with
the needles. An extended scene that finds the heroine trapped with the killer
in her own apartment and escaping through an air duct with a little girl out of
a Lewis Carroll story could be the most masterfully suspenseful set piece in a
career littered with them.
Scorpion Releasing brings Opera to blu-ray with a meticulous 2K scan. I know, I know—4K is
the ideal way to go, but this is still a very attractive presentation with barely a
speck of dust and organic, lively textures. This is particularly important
since the film is so textural whether lingering on red velvet, the gnarly twine
of a thick rope, or the pearl-like ring around a raven’s eye. There are also two
bonus interviews—a previously issued 21-minute talk with Argento and a brand
new one with actor William McNamara. McNamara has a relatively small role in
the feature, but his interview is still nicely illuminating as he explains the
circumstances that led to the audacious pov of the opening scene and his
reaction to having his voice dubbed by a British actor.
