Revisiting Dario Argento's "Terror At The Opera" From 1987

Smoking Gun: Cristina Marsillach as Betty as Lady Macbeth

A decade before his film, The Phantom of the Opera (1998), Dario Argento found himself in the opera house shooting another sort of slasher film. Terror at the Opera, or just Opera as it would later be called, featured a glimpse of soprano obsession not seen since the film Diva (1981) and the much later Las Hijas De Danao (2014). The plot of Argento's bloody film is as follows: "A young opera singer (Betty) gets her big chance when the previous star of a production of Verdi's Macbeth is run over by a car. Convinced the opera is bad luck she accepts, and becomes the target (in Argento's unmistakable style) of a psychopath - a man she has been dreaming of since childhood." [Source] The horror film's soundtrack includes original compositions of Brian and Roger Eno, Claudio Simonetti, Bill Wyman and Terry Taylor, The Group Steel Grave, The Group Norden Light, as well as opera contributions from the following: "Vieni t'afretti" from opera Macbeth by Giuseppe Verdi performed by Maria Callas; "Casta Diva" from Norma composed by Vincenzo Bellini performed by Maria Callas; "Amami Alfredo" from La Traviata composed by Giuseppe Verdi performed by Maria Callas; "Sempre libera" from La Traviata composed by Giuseppe Verdi performed by Maria Callas; "Un bel dì vedremo" from Madama Butterfly composed by Giacomo Puccini performed by Mirella Freni; Macbeth (excerpt) composed by Giuseppe Verdi performed by Elizabeth Norberg-Schulz (as Elisabetta Norberg Schulz) soprano, Paola Leolini Soprano, Andrea Piccinni (as Andrea Piccini) Tenor, Michele Pertusi Baritone, with "Artouro Toscanini" Symphonic Orchestra of Emilia and Romagna. Watch the film, read more about Dario Argento, and see the cast list, after the jump.