In many respects the last full-throttle Dario Argento film to date, Opera pushes his stylistic tendencies into overdrive right from the opening Steadicam shots through an opera house from the point of view of a temperamental diva. As melancholy and vibrant as a fond farewell to the '80s should be, the storyline encapsulates many of the successful elements from Argento's previous films while packaging them in a disturbing, sexually twisted package laced with some unforgettable murder sequences. Who could ask for anything more?

After an unfortunate car accident makes a career casualty of opera star Mara Cecova, young understudy Betty (Marsillach) is pressed into service as the new lead by her director, Marc (Ian Charleson), a horror movie pro trying to move upscale. Betty's agent, Myra (Nicolodi), feels nothing but enthusiasm for her young star in the making, and indeed Betty's debut turns into a smash success. Unfortunately an usher is murdered in one of the theater boxes during the performance, indicating that one of Betty's new fans may have homicidal tendencies. Inspector Santini (Barberini) investigates the mysterious goings on, while Betty's celebratory but unsuccessful opening night tryst with the stage manager (McNamara) turns nasty when the killer arrives and performs gruesome acts while pinning Betty's eyes open with taped needles. Terrified and confused, Betty plunges into a disoriented state in which she acts as the pawn of a devious mind with violent ties to Betty's past.

Many of Opera's highlights have already passed into gorehound legend, including a jaw-dropping slow motion bullet sequence that cannot be adequately described in words. As with most of Argento's other films, Opera is also a treat to watch as his camera performs ungodly acrobatics: swirling up staircases, thumping along with the killer's palpitating heartbeat, and swooping through the opera house itself from the point of view of a raven. Most complaints about the film center on its bizarre, appropriately overheated ending, a crazy riff on Red Dragon that begins with a tongue-in-cheek homage to Phenomena and winds up on a disturbingly ambiguous note. The preceding climax is actually more difficult to justify, as it features more logic loopholes than the rest of Argento's oeuvre combined. The soundtrack is equally daring and likely to turn off inexperienced viewers as it weaves back and forth from Claudio Simonetti's haunting, Goblin-style music to lashings of heavy metal and classical opera. Beautiful, shocking, frustrating, and thoroughly entertaining, Opera has only become more fascinating with time and easily deserves a spot as one of Argento's most revealing and accomplished efforts.

The video history of Opera is one of the most tangled and confusing in the director's career so far. Some necessary spoilers from the film have been included here for clarification, so anyone who has not seen the film would be well advised to skip down to the next paragraph. And now, let's proceed. The film was originally released in Italian theaters for Christmas, but the changing attitudes of the public meant that its graphic violence and adults-only rating kept most of the target audience away. Almost all of the gory highlights were quickly removed, and it was reissued soon after with that same butchered cut marking its video debut on Italian VHS. Missing were most of McNamara's death, the scissor tracheotomy performed on Demons 2's Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni, and the raven eyeball swallowing. Meanwhile the film's original English dub was greeted with laughter by exhibitors, so Barberini's original fey dubbed voice was re-looped, though alas this left much of his climactic monologue difficult to decipher. Orion picked up international distribution of the film and changed the title to Terror at the Opera, allowing frustrated Argento fans to finally see the forbidden gore courtesy of RCA/Columbia's gorgeous full frame laserdisc. Alas, this version was also heavily compromised as Orion, planning an American theatrical release, removed several expository passages (the perfume pouring into the sink, several linking bits of footage and dialogue, the scene between Charleson and his girlfriend, and the entire "happy/crazy" epilogue with Betty shuffling through the grass, to name but a few). The first full, uncut version of Opera (under the revised title) was released on VHS in the US in an unrated edition from Southgate; in fact, apart from those unlucky few who checked out the slightly edited R-rated cut at Blockbuster Video (remember them?).

Now here's where things get complicated. Opera was filmed in Super 35, so the aspect ratio has varied wildly on both the big and small screens. Orion's intended theatrical edition was struck in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio, which exposed a huge amount of dead space and distracting details at the top and bottom of the frame, such as Marsillach's underwear throughout her bed scene with McNamara. The same version was used for the mildly cropped Japanese laserdisc, and the Italian DVD release from Cecchi Gori (which looks nice but has no English subtitles, alas) is also from this "opened up" 1.85:1 edition. However, a bootleg tape of the first English dub has circulated for years in Argento's preferred 2.35:1 aspect ratio, and the director himself has exhibited the film this way at several public appearances. The "scope" version is a markedly different experience and really feels more like an Argento film. The opera sequences in particular benefit from the tighter framing; just check out the shrouded figures immediately before the "raven attack" sequence, or the rectangular stage framing during Betty's first stage appearance.

Anchor Bay's DVD edition, later reissued verbatim from Blue Underground, contains the second, revised English dub, letterboxed at 2.35:1 version. Despite the THX certification, the image is far too bright during normal playback. However, viewers with a "black enhance" control on their DVD player or a good grasp of the contrast and brightness controls on their TV can tweak the image to make it more watchable, though the colors are also on the yellow and desaturated side. The DD and DTS-ES audio mixes actually sound pretty much the same as the theatrical surround version; rear channel activity is surprisingly sparse given the aggressive nature of the film, offering mostly ambient support and some musical carryover during the louder passages, along with the expected squawk or two from the ravens. (Note that the first pressing was defective, but replacements were made available directly from the company.) The imaginatively designed menus lead to some eye-popping (ahem) extras, beginning with the mediocre European trailer (in 2.35:1) and Orion's excellent, striking trailer for the scrapped U.S. release (at 1.85:1). Oddly, Southgate's marvelously well-edited video trailer is not included. The disc also contains a very good featurette, "Conducting Opera" (35m46s), featuring on-camera interviews with Argento, Nicolodi, cinematographer Ronnie Taylor, Simonetti, and a particularly good Barberini, whose appealing English-speaking voice would have been much better suited for his role than either of the dubbed options. All of the participants have notable things to say about the production and offer candid observations about the difficulties behind the scenes, including the tempestuous behavior of a noticeably absent Marsillach. Interestingly, no one mentions another actress problem; according to Argento expert Alan Jones, Vanessa Redgrave reportedly backed out of playing Cecova at the last minute, leaving a voice over and subjective camera to play her role instead. The documentary also includes the Argento/Taylor car commercial filmed prior to Opera, which had previously been available only on PAL VHS video.

Anchor Bay's limited edition of 30,000 units offers a double-disc set of Opera with the CD soundtrack. The second disc incorporates the complete Simonetti score (previously available only on vinyl from Cinevox) as well as the two heavy metal songs by Steel Grave. However, the opera selections from the original album have been dropped in favor of the Daemonia "Opera" theme remix (also featured as a music video on the first disc), accompanied by the Rollerball Daemonia cue from their earlier albums and Simonetti's overused "I'll Take the Night" song from The Versace Murders. An earlier CD from Cinevox containing the Brian Eno cues and other musical odds and ends was once the standard out there but, in more recent years, has become quite a bit more scarce in favor of multiple editions of the Simonetti score.

A fascinating pair of alternate audio versions of Opera could be heard on the UK DVD release from Arrow, featuring equally flat image quality and identical framing to the Anchor Bay presentation, with the first disc release of the original dub track heard at Cannes with Barberini's prissier voice (which fits far more organically into the soundtrack). Note that the music mix is also slightly different, featuring yet another variation on the radio music during the first eye-taping scene. That DVD contains the original Italian audio in a very robust presentation which even outclasses the Italian DVD. The front and rear speakers are the most active of any available mix, and the disc also includes optional English subtitles, making this the first legitimate subtitled edition. Completists will also note that only the Italian version concludes with a male narrator relating most of Betty's pro-nature speech at the end, though it's still translated in the first person for some reason. (The subtitles appear to be translated from the Italian track, not transcribed from the English one.) Several passages of music in the Italian version are nonexistent in both English ones; for example, during Ian Charleson's bedroom conversation with his girlfriend in which they read the early newspaper reviews, Simonetti's "Crows" can be heard playing on the radio in the background, and Betty's stroll through several hallways of red curtains after the air duct sequence and Ian Charleson's Hamlet reverie are accompanied quite audibly by Simonetti's "Confusion." In the English version, both scenes are severely muted down in the sound mix to the point of invisibility. Also in the Italian version, an ironic song gurgles on the radio during Betty's first needle experience, though here the only music during the scene is a barely audible Brian Eno piece.

After that the film managed to sit out the entire Blu-ray wave for many years, finally turning up first in HD from Japanese label Kadokawa in the summer of 2015. Unfortunately that release was underwhelming, undeniably a new scan but suffering from an interlaced presentation, shoddy encoding, and, perhaps even worse, a mono-only presentation of the English soundtrack. It took over a year for a passable Blu-ray to finally turn up from Koch Media in Germany courtesy of a three-disc mediabook set containing the usual illustrated German liner notes booklet inside. Oddly enough, this release came just after Argento mounted his own real-life production of Verdi's Macbeth in Italy, complete with controversial lashings of gore and nudity. Thankfully, none of the participants wound up getting hit by cars or tied by maniacs, at least as far as we know. The Koch Blu-ray and first DVD contain the main feature, which can be played in either the full-length version (107 minutes) or the abbreviated export cut (95 minutes), both derived from the Italian negative with opening and closing titles in that language. The uncut version features DTS-HD English (the first Cannes dub with Barberini's British accent), Italian, and German audio options in stereo; the German one sounds very thin and reedy, but the other two are very robust apart from some occasional hissiness in the English dub (which has been inherent to that version on home video). There's also a German-only audio commentary, which won't be of much use for English buyers. The shorter export cut is presented with German or English DTS-HD stereo options, featuring the second, flatter dub for Barberini's character. The transfer itself is from the same HD master but presented more effectively with better handling of grain, color (not perfect though), and black levels, plus it's progressive. The second DVD contains seven Freak-o-Rama featurettes not on the Blu-ray, all in English or Italian without English-friendly options, featuring interviews with Argento (21 mins., touching on his 2015 production of the Verdi opera), Simonetti (30 mins.), writer Franco Ferrini (36 mins.), and makeup artist Sergio Stivaletti (15 mins.), plus an overview of Macbeth and its cursed history with Enrico Lucherini (13 mins.), a 36-minute critical study by film historian Fabrizio Spurio, and a 25-minute Q&A with Argento at a German screening in 2006. All of these feature optional German subs, but most were made English friendly in later releases. That DVD is rounded out with two different music videos for the film's theme, one shot on the film set with Simonetti and a later one performed by his band Daemonia.

After a lengthy gestation process, Opera finally made its American Blu-ray debut in early 2018 from Scorpion Releasing as a single-disc general retail version containing the standard uncut version with the revised English soundtrack (with Barberini's flat Americanized accent). It improves on the German Blu-ray quite a bit, featuring significant additional image information and a much richer appearance including deeper blacks and much more finely modulated shades of red and blue (with less of a greenish/yellow cast as well). Detail looks excellent throughout, and the robust colors most closely resemble that epic Japanese laserdisc release. Audio options include a DTS-HD MA 5.1 track (with some modest but fun channel separation, especially in the raven scenes) and a DTS-HD MA English stereo track reflecting the usual Dolby Stereo mix we've known and loved. Both are much less hissy and better balanced, too. Bonus material here includes an Argento interview (21m41s) that covers some of the usual material but with a much warmer opinion of the film than he's expressed in the past. That's followed by a great new video interview with McNamara (16m44s) about how he got the gig on this film while he was making Secret of the Sahara in Italy without having to read a single line, then later discovered Tarantino was a fan of the film during an audition; of course, he also chats quite a bit about his elaborate, legendary death scene. He also goes into more detail about the whole Redgrave fiasco, which is a tale unto itself. Also included are the U.S. Orion trailer, the international English trailer, and the Italian "coming for Christmas" teaser.

At the end of 2018, the film made its U.K. Blu-ray debut from Cult Films (an affiliate of Shameless) with a few new twists of its own as a dual-format, numbered slipcase edition followed by a general release option in 2019. Working from the same HD scan, the release is touted as being timed to match Argento's personal print. (It is also listed as being Region B, but the Blu-ray seems to play without issue in Region A players.) Image quality is extremely impressive and compares well with the U.S. release, with framing shifted slightly upward and some (but not all) scenes looking a few notches brighter. Thankfully it sticks closer to the richer, darker appearance than the sickly German release, which is good news all around. Audio is presented in LPCM 2.0 stereo English (general release version) and Italian options with optional English subtitles translated directly from the Italian track for the first time (so that last scene's narration finally makes sense). Both tracks are clean and have solid channel separation. The extras kick off with "Opera Backstage" (44m33s), a terrific batch of raw, VHS-shot footage from the production. Snippets of this have turned up in documentaries and featurettes over the years, but it's great to see the entire thing complete with extensive coverage of the opera house raven attack, the murder of McNamara, the library conflagration, and the attack on Betty's apartment. "Aria of Fear" (40m14s) features Argento discussing the film in ever more positive terms ("the one I love the most") and explaining how opera (particularly Verdi) has played a pivotal role in many of his films like Inferno and Phantom of the Opera. Finally a restoration process demo (8m38s) shows before and after comparisons of the final version versus the original open aperture scan of the Super 35 elements, complete with those shots of a "nude" Betty in her underwear.

The deluxe Scorpion version also landed in 2019, featuring three Blu-rays from the same scan with some additional image stabilization. Disc one has the uncut version framed at 2.35:1 with English stereo, 5.1, Italian mono (labeled as stereo), and the Cannes mono English track with optional English subtitles labeled as being for the English or Italian tracks. That's actually a mistake as both are dubtitles for the English track, which makes the Italian version completely incoherent at times (especially the last couple of minutes). Extras include the Argento interview, the international English trailer, a 17m11s interview with Tassoni about her work on this film after Demons 2 and her memories of Argento, and an audio commentary by yours truly. Disc two features the completely opened-up 1.78:1 version which makes for a fun idea of how this might have played in IMAX, with English stereo and 5.1, Cannes English, and Italian options with the same English subs, plus a solo audio commentary by Troy Howarth. The McNamara interview is ported over here, plus the "Opera" music video and an 11m10s interview with Barbara Cupisti about her minimal role and her mingling with Michele Soavi and Dario Argento around that time. Finally on disc three you get the U.S. Orion cut (framed at 2.35:1, which is funny as that cut was only issued opened up to 1.85:1 for American and Japanese theatrical prints), with English 2.0 stereo. Here you get the heftiest video extras including "Notes and Nightmares" (29m47s) with Simonetti, "Who Did It and Who Am I?" (37m21s) with screenwriter Franco Ferrini, "Revenge of the Crows" (15m9s) with Stivaletti, "The Eyes and the Needles" (14m1s) with makeup artist Franco Casagni, "To Catch a Killer" (15m16s) with Barberini, "The Curse of Macbeth" (13m31s) with press agent Enrico Lucherinni, and "With Open Eyes" (36m10s) with film historian Fabrizio Spurio. All of these feature the longest and most overstuffed English subtitles you've ever seen. Also included are the raw behind-the-scenes footage (44m32s) with the U.S. trailer.

In 2024, Severin Films bowed Argento's film on UHD in the U.S. (following a limited one in Germany) as a five-disc set (one UHD, three Blu-rays, and one soundtrack CD with the most recent expanded special edition of Simonetti's contributions, including a couple of mystifying extra tracks done much later). The UHD features both the uncut version and the U.S. cut framed at 2.35:1; here the framing removes some info on the left side which, according to the tech notes about the release, wasn't meant to be seen when it was shot in Super 35. Presented in HDR-compatible Dolby Vision, the disc had a bumpy roll out with a color space snafu that sapped all the red away; a recall program was quickly put into effect and it now looks beautiful and extremely detailed with the correct levels of all-important red, blue, and black in particular. Audio options include DTS-HD English 5.1 (sounding better than ever here), 2.0 (the usual mix we've had all along, quirks and all), Italian 2.0 (real stereo this time), Cannes English mono, and three commentary tracks. The first has Marsillach finally going on record at length about the film and her experiences (hot on the heels of her poignant appearance in Dario Argento: Panico) with Angel Sala, the Sitges Film Festival's Head of Programming. Presented in Spanish with English subtitles, it's a very thorough and perceptive track balancing out personal thoughts and observations about recurring themes in Argento's films, with some very funny bits along the way as well. Far from the turbulent stories about the film, you'll find a more thoughtful and nuanced take on the film here. The second track features Alan Jones and Kim Newman, who are hilarious and chock full of insights as always with the former divvying out tales from the set along the way, and a third one bringing myself and Howarth together for a new track. Also included are the international and U.S. English trailers.

The first Blu-ray also has the 2.35:1 versions of the uncut and U.S. versions, looking markedly different here with the most intensely saturated and bright presentation of them all. Framing-wise it's the same and features the same audio configurations including the three commentaries, plus the two trailers. Despite bearing the same title as the Casagni featurette, "The Eyes and the Needles" (22m42s) this time is the Freak-o-Rama interview with Argento from the earlier U.S. release, "Arias of Death" (37m24s) is a repurposing of the Ferrini interview (both here with much better English subtitles), and the new "The Eyes of Opera" (19m15s) features Marsillach looking back at the quick process of being cast in the film, the fondness she developed for Verdi's opera which she learned studiously, her up and down rapport with her perfectionist director, her positive feelings about the end result with her character, the toll of shooting the murder sequences, and her admiration for the production's technical complexity. It's a very affecting piece, easily the most resonant one on the set. The second Blu-ray has the open matte uncut version (with the left framing adjustment in place) with the same audio options and commentaries. "Don't Close Your Eyes" (37m46s) is the Fabrizio Spurio interview with much better subtitles, plus the "Conducting Opera" featurette from the Anchor Bay disc, "The Opera and Mr. Jones" (12m43s) with Alan Jones offering a more general overview of his thoughts on the film's place in Argento's filmography, his first encounter with the director, and the experiences he had for two weeks in 1986 covering an Argento film in-depth on the set for the first time. Finally, "Terror At The Opera" (26m36s) is a 2006 Q&A with Argento, Ferrini, and Lamberto Bava at Cinema Farnese doing a look back at some of the concepts behind the film's wilder ideas and how they feel about it years later.

Finally the third Blu-ray is devoted entirely to featurettes both old and new. You get the Simonetti interview here as "Blood Red Piano" (31m2s) here again with vastly improved subs, Casagni's is "Blood and Latex" (13m25s), and the Barberini one is here still under the title "To Catch a Killer," plus the usual compilation of making-of footage. "Opera Runs in the Blood" (18m3s) is a new chat with Cataldi-Tassoni with more info about her life in general leading up to this film and her reflections on it years later, while "In Any Language" (8m59s) features actress Antonella Vitale (The Church) talking about her longstanding admiration for Argento, her modeling background, and her casting here as Charleson's girlfriend which led to an element that left her unsatisfied. In "The Perfect Death" (3m59s), Nicolodi briefly shares her thoughts on her big death scene here compared to her other two big perilous demises for Argento in Inferno and Phenomena. "The Eye Behind the Camera" (35m27s) features camera operator Antonio Scaramuzza and "The Gliding Camera" (19m23s) has Steadicam operator Nicola Pecorini both talking about working with Ronnie Taylor as well as Scaramuzza's hiring partially because he spoke English, Argento's first awareness of Taylor, the hierarchy on set, the tech tricks at the time involving lenses and other equipment, and the tricky challenges of the tunnel built for Betty's apartment escape. "Flight of the Crow" (18m24s) is a new, different featurette with Stivaletti covering his main work with the fake ravens and other assignments on the film, while "800 Sons" (14m8s) is a very different take courtesy of press agent Enrico Lucherini recalling his brushes with Argento early on working for Paese Sera, which led to his working on everything from The Bird with the Crystal Plumage through Dracula 3D -- with Opera being particularly complicated. Finally in "Preserving Opera" (5m52s), filmmaker and 4K color correction supervisor Karim Hussain demonstrates the process of determining the film's intended color scheme and its correct framing within the tricky Super 35 process.