The acting of watching a horror movie is always a kind of dare. The toughest among us can look at the what happens on the screen with a sense of detachment, or better yet, amusement. The more sensitive will close their eyes, cover them with their hands or in some way hide from the on-screen mayhem. There is also the discovery that often what one actually does see on the screen is far less horrible than what one may imagine.

What has become the iconic image of Cristina Marsillach's eyes, taped with the needles to stay open, stands as the image of the audience being forced to look, with the option of not looking taken away. In the case of the character, Betty, her choice is to view the violent deaths of people close to her, or cause herself tremendous physical pain and damage. Opera is full of close-ups of eyes, as well as close-ups in general, revealing bits of information to the audience in the form of details - black leather gloves, a stray bracelet, a feather, a pair of binoculars. In addition to the taping of Betty's eyes, the narrative is about the act of seeing in identifying the killer.

The camera, of course, acts as the eyes of the audience. In this way, Argento plays with the audience by reminding them of how vulnerable the eyes are physically, as well as playing with the idea of horror as both what one sees, does not see, or imagines that is seen. Implicating the audience is not unique in itself except that Opera is both partially autobiographical, refering to Argento's own attempts to stage opera, and critical of the kind of classism that divides performing arts into highbrow (opera) and lowbrow (horror movies). In addition to the operas inspired by the plays of Shakespeare, there is the violence and spectacle in such operas as Turandot and Salome. For Dario Argento, madness is both the motivation and the result of being an artist.

As it turns out, there is another Argento involved in opera. I don't know how much either is aware of the other, but it is interesting to note that both Argentos share an interest in Edgar Allen Poe, whose own writings were about madness, art and doppelgangers. Of further coincidence is that Dario Argento's film Trauma was shot on location at Dominick Argento's home turf of Minneapolis. And in discussing Poe, Dario Argento made a statement that could well refer back to Opera - "Is it right to be obsessed with looking at terrible things and sharing them with other people, especially when many people are perturbed by them?"