Opera – Severin Films (4k UHD/Blu-ray/CD Combo)

Theatrical Release Date: Italy, 1987
Director: Dario Argento
Writers: Dario Argento, Franco Ferrini
Cast: Cristina Marsillach, Ian Charleson, Urbano Barberini, William McNamara, Antonella Vitale, Barbara Cupisti, Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni, Daria Nicolodi

Release Date: July 14th, 2024
Approximate Running Times: 107 Minutes 27 Seconds (Director's Cut), 95 Minutes 40 Seconds (U.S. Cut - Terror at the Opera)
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen / 2160 Progressive / HEVC / H.265 / Dolby Vision HDR10 (Director's Cut), 1.85:1 Widescreen / 2160 Progressive / HEVC / H.265 / Dolby Vision HDR10 (U.S. Cut - Terror at the Opera)
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD 5.1 English (All Versions), DTS-HD Stereo English (All Versions), DTS-HD Mono English - Cannes, DTS-HD Stereo Italian (Director's Cut)
Subtitles: English (Director's Cut), English SDH (U.S. Cut - Terror at the Opera)
Region Coding: Region Free (4K UHD), Region A (Blu-ray)
Retail Price: $74.95

"When a young opera singer (Cristina Marsillach, in her career-defining performance) is stalked by a masked psychopath, she will be forced into a grisly aria of murder, memories and unimaginable torment." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 5/5 (4K UHD, Blu-ray)

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, "newly scanned in 4K from the original camera negatives at Cinecittà."

Opera, the director's cut, and the U.S. cut come on a 100 GB triple layer 4K UHD.

Disc Size: 85.3 GB

Feature: 81.1 GB

Though originally released with the wrong color space, Severin Films has corrected this issue, and now the colors look amazing. The source looks phenomenal; this is easily the best this film has looked on home media. Flesh tones look healthy, color saturation, image clarity, contrast, black levels, and compression are solid, and the image always looks organic. This release uses seamless branching for the two versions. 

Opera, the director's cut, and the U.S. cut come on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 45.8 GB

Feature: 34.8 GB

The Blu-ray included as part of this release uses the same source that was used for the 4K UHD’s transfer. This release uses seamless branching for the two versions.

Opera 1.85:1 aspect ratio comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 44.7 GB

Feature: 34.8 GB

The Blu-ray included as part of this release uses the same source that was used for the 4K UHD’s transfer.

Audio: 5/5 (DTS-HD 5.1 English, DTS-HD Stereo English, DTS-HD Stereo Italian), 4/5 (DTS-HD Mono English - Cannes)

The director’s cut comes with four audio options, a DTS-HD 5.1 mix in English, a DTS-HD stereo mix in English, a DTS-HD stereo mix in Italian, and a DTS-HD mono mix in English (Cannes audio track). Subtitles for the director's cut include removable English SDH for DTS-HD 5.1 English, DTS-HD stereo English, removable English SDH for DTS-HD mono English (Cannes audio track), and removable English subtitles for the Italian language track.

The U.S. cut comes with two audio options: a DTS-HD 5.1 mix in English and a DTS-HD stereo mix in English. Included are removable English SDH.

The Cannes audio track is the weakest; there is background hiss throughout that varies in degree of severity. All of the other audio tracks sound excellent; dialog always comes through clearly, and everything sounds balanced. Range-wise, all of these tracks really take full advantage of the sound spectrum; ambient sounds are well-represented, and the score sounds appropriately robust.

Extras:

Extras on the 4K UHD disc include a theatrical trailer for Terror at the Opera (1 minute 42 seconds, DTS-HD stereo English, no subtitles), a theatrical trailer for Opera (1 minute 49 seconds, DTS-HD stereo English, no subtitles), an audio commentary with actress Cristina Marsillach and Ángel Sala, head of programming at The Sitges Film Festival for the director’s cut, in Spanish with removable English subtitles, an audio commentary with Alan Jones, author of Profondo Argento, and Kim Newman, author of Anno Dracula for the director’s cut and an audio commentary with Mondo Digital's Nathaniel Thompson and Troy Howarth, author of Murder by Design: The Unsane Cinema of Dario Argento for the director’s cut.

Extras for Blu-ray disc one include a theatrical trailer for Terror at the Opera (1 minute 42 seconds, DTS-HD stereo English, no subtitles), a theatrical trailer for Opera (1 minute 49 seconds, DTS-HD stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with Cristina Marsillach titled The Eyes of Opera (19 minutes 15 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Spanish with removable English subtitles), an interview with screenwriter Franco Ferrini titled Arias of Death (37 minutes 24 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with director Dario Argento titled The Eyes and the Needles (22 minutes 42 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an audio commentary with Cristina Marsillach and Ángel Sala for the director’s cut, in Spanish with removable English subtitles, an audio commentary with Alan Jones and Kim Newman for the director’s cut and an audio commentary with Nathaniel Thompson and Troy Howarth for the director’s cut.

Extras for Blu-ray disc two include an interview with film historian Fabrizio Spurio titled Don't Close Your Eyes (37 minutes 46 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an archival featurette titled Conducting Dario Argento’s Opera, featuring Interviews with Dario Argento, cinematographer Ronnie Taylor, actress Daria Nicolodi, actor Urbano Barberini, FX artist Sergio Stivaletti And composer Claudio Simonetti (35 minutes 46 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian and English with removable English subtitles for Italian), a Q&A with Dario Argento, Franco Ferrini And Lamberto Bava at Cinema Farnese from 2006 titled Terror at the Opera (26 minutes 36 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with Alan Jones titled The Opera and Mr. Jones (12 minutes 42 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an audio commentary with Cristina Marsillach and Ángel Sala for the director’s cut, in Spanish with removable English subtitles, an audio commentary with Alan Jones and Kim Newman for the director’s cut and an audio commentary with Nathaniel Thompson and Troy Howarth for the director’s cut.

Extras on Blu-ray disc three include a behind-the-scenes video created from archival footage titled Opera Backstage (44 minutes 35 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with 4K color correction supervisor Karim Hussain titled Preserving Opera (5 minutes 52 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with press agent Enrico Lucherini titled 800 Sons (14 minutes 8 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with steadicam operator Nicola Pecorini titled The Gliding Camera (19 minutes 23 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with make-up artist Franco Casagni titled Blood and Latex (13 minutes 25 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with Sergio Stivaletti titled Flight of the Crow (18 minutes 24 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with camera operator Antonio Scaramuzza titled The Eye Behind the Camera (35 minutes 27 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with Claudio Simonetti titled Blood Red Piano (31 minutes 2 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with Daria Nicolodi titled The Perfect Death (3 minutes 59 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with actress Antonella Vitale titled In Any Language (8 minutes 59 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles), an interview with Urbano Barberini titled To Catch A Killer (15 minutes 19 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles) and an interview with actress Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni titled OPERA Runs in the Blood (18 minutes 3 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Italian with removable English subtitles).

Disc 4 is a CD with Opera’s 15-song soundtrack.

Other extras include a slipcase, and a 80-page booklet with an essay titled “All is the Fear and Nothing is the Love”, The Phantom of the Auteur in Dario Argento’s Opera written by Claire Donner, and archival images.

Summary:

Dario Argento being referred to as the Italian Alfred Hitchcock is an apt comparison. Both of them used their camera eye in a way that makes a viewer a voyeur instead of a passive observer. And even the way that Dario Argento frames his compositions to enhance fear comes back to the foundations laid out by Alfred Hitchcock.

When a young opera singer is thrust into the spotlight, a crazed fan stalks and kills those close to her, forcing her to watch.

In 1987, Dario Argento would direct what many of his fans consider his last great film opera. During this period of his life, Dario Argento experienced significant personal upheaval, the death of his father, and the end of his relationship with actress Daria Nicolodi. Opera is one of Dario Argento’s best-written screenplays of his career. It is a meticulously constructed narrative where all the events unfold like a Shakespearean tragedy.

Macbeth, the cursed play depicted in the opera, lends itself to the various mishaps that happen along the way. The music of Giuseppe Verdi, along with Claudio Simonetti’s score and heavy metal, amplify the murder sequences. Though Dario Argento is known for his visually arresting moments, all of his films owe a great debt to their composers, who have, through the various stages of his career, supplied him with music that is menacing, haunting, and most importantly, unforgettable.

When it comes to framing compositions, there are no accidents in a Dario Argento; he always chooses the most visually arresting option, which heightens the mood. Another area where his visuals excel are colors and the significant role they play in the cinema of Dario Argento. That said, Opera visually features some of Dario Argento’s most stylish and daring compositions.

With Opera, Dario Argento is at the top of his game in regards to the murder set pieces. The murders in Opera are the most graphic and disturbing of Dario Argento’s career. Always an innovator, Dario Argento comes up with an inventive way in which the killer forces the protagonist to watch the carnage. Opera has an abundance of brutal, stylized murder set pieces, including Dario Argento’s most inventive murder ever conceived, a gunshot through a peephole that takes out a phone after traveling through an eye. That said, one must not overlook how Dario Argento uses the crows, especially when it comes to identifying the killer.

When it comes to the performances, Opera is a film where they grow on you the more you revisit them. Most of the criticism of the performances is directly linked to the English dubbing, especially when it comes to Urbano Barberini (Demons) in the role of  Inspector Alan Santini. That said, the performance that's most unfairly maligned is Cristina Marsillach’s portrayal of the protagonist, Betty. Despite her character playing a passive role for the majority of the film, she still delivers the right amount of emotion. The best performance is Ian Charleson’s (Chariots of Fire) portrayal of Marco, the director of the opera.

Dario Aregnto’s films often get criticized for focusing more on style than narrative, and with Opera he finds a perfect balance. Flashbacks are a tool that Dario Argento has used effectively throughout his career, and in the case of Opera, they provide a clear picture of the killer's deviant mind. Ultimately, Opera is a tour de force in filmmaking where Dario Argento takes everything he’s learned up to that point and creates a bloodbath of sadism that goes for your jugular.

Severin Films gives Opera its best home media release to date; the film has never looked or sounded better, and there is a wealth of insightful extras. Highly recommended.

Note about the 4K screenshots: It is not possible to make Dolby Vision or HDR10 screenshots that faithfully match the experience of watching a film in motion on a TV. Instead of not having any screenshots, all of the 4K screenshots are m2ts taken with a MPC-HC player and lossless PNGs.

Written by Michael Den Boer