Opera Scenes in Video Games: Hitmen, Divas and Wagner’s Werewolves

Abstract

This article aims to illuminate the meanings and aesthetic effects generated by scenes of staged opera in video games. It also explores the images of opera transmitted to the huge audiences that games address. Three dimensions of the opera-game encounter are discussed. First,ToscainHitman: Blood MoneyandThe Beggar’s OperainAssassin’s Creed IIIare used to examine the treatment of violence and the discourse of popular appeal in games and opera. Second, the arias sung by women inFinal Fantasy VIandParasite Eveillustrate how a melodramatic mode of expression represents a confluence of the aesthetic priorities of the two media. Finally,The Beast Within’s meditation on Wagner reveals how opera sequences aim to engage players by conjuring phantasmagorias through a unifying and enrapturing spectacle.