11 most memorable uses of opera in films

6 May 2025, 12:49

JULIA ROBERTS, RICHARD GERE, PRETTY WOMAN, 1990. Picture: Alamy

By Lucy Hicks Beach

What do Pretty Woman, Mr Bean’s Holiday and The Godfather: Part III all have in common?

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From 70s classics to children’s animations, films have always turned to opera to help depict emotions, narratives and characters. Take a look at some of the best times operas have made their way into our favourite films.

Pretty Woman – La Traviata, Giuseppe Verdi

Pretty Woman has often been compared to La Traviata: in both films, a sex worker meets a wealthy man and they have to navigate the issues that arise from the difference in their backgrounds.
In Pretty Woman, Edward, played by Richard Geere, takes Vivian, played by Julia Roberts to see that very opera and we see Violetta sing ‘Sempre Libera’ and ‘Amami, Alfredo’.

Pretty Woman - that scene at the opera!
The Shawshank Redemption – The Marriage of Figaro, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

The Shawshank Redemption has one of the most famous scenes featuring opera in cinematic history. Convict Andy Dufresne seizes control of his prison’s PA system and plays the Letter Duet ‘Sull’aria’ from Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. Amid the monotony and cruelty of the prison, the soaring voices provide a moment of beauty and freedom within the film that is broken by a guard smashing in the window to the office that had become Andy’s temporary radio studio.

(HD) The Shawshank Redemption (Mozart Opera Scene)
Apocalypse Now – Die Walküre, Richard Wagner

In Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 epic, Apocalypse Now, as a squadron of helicopters is about to assault a Vietnamese village, Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore blasts Ride of the Valkyrie from Wagner’s from Die Walküre out of loudspeakers attached to the helicopters.

'Ride of the Valkyries' | Apocalypse Now
Batman Begins – Mefistofele, Arrigo Boito

In the first film of the Dark Knight trilogy, a young Bruce Wayne heads to the opera with his parents, where they watch Boito’s opera Mefistofele. Scared by the bats on stage, he asks his parents if they can leave, after which they are killed.
Some people have drawn comparison with the Faustian myth of Mefistofele and the story of Batman, with figures who find purpose after feeling lost and purposeless amid a journey to extinguish evil.

Batman Begins - Opera Scene
Maria – Tosca, Giacomo Puccini

Unsurprisingly, the 2025 biopic about soprano Maria Callas features… a lot of opera. Perhaps most notably, Angelina Jolie performs ‘Vissi d’arte’ from Tosca. Pablo Larraín is another director who uses opera to reflect their film’s narrative: when Tosca sings this aria in the opera, she is asking God why he has abandoned her as her lover has been taken away for execution, and she goes on to take her own life. In the film, Jolie plays another heroine whose life has been destroyed by the men around her, and sings this just before she dies.
Read more: Does Angelina Jolie sing in the Maria Callas biopic? Actress reveals her operatic training

Maria Callas - Vissi d'arte Maria (From Maria Soundtrack)
Mrs Doubtfire – Il barbiere di Siviglia, Gioachino Rossini

Mrs Doubtfire opens with Robin Williams, who plays a voice actor who is yet to discover that his wife wants a divorce, singing ‘Largo al factotum’ from The Barber of Seville as he voices a cartoon bird.

Mrs. Doubtfire Opening
Mr Bean’s Holiday – Gianni Schicchi, Giacomo Puccini

Rowan Atkinson is not just one of the UK’s best comic actors but he also has an extraordinary operatic-lip-synching gift. In Mr Bean’s Holiday, while he is on a journey to get to Cannes and reunite a lost boy with this father, Mr Bean ends up in the middle of a market miming Puccini’s ‘O mio babbino caro’ while acting out a scene that has, frankly, nothing to do with the words of the aria. With his young companion as his co-star, the duo earn rapturous applause from market goers, and enough money to continue on their adventure.
Read more: Best Puccini operas: the Italian composer’s greatest works

O mio babbino caro
The Godfather: Part III – Cavalleria Rusticana, Pietro Mascagni

In The Godfather: Part III, Michael Corleone, played by Al Pacino, and his family watch his son, Anthony perform in Cavalleria Rusticana. Meanwhile, his enemies execute a plan for revenge. Michael’s daughter Mary is accidentally killed, and Mascagni’s music is heard as he cradles her, screaming.

The Godfather III THE END included Cavalleria Rusticana Intermezzo
Despicable Me 3 – Pirates of Penzance, Gilbert and Sullivan

Whilst it may not feature any of W. S. Gilbert’s actual libretto, in the third Despicable Me film, the Minions end up performing a version of ‘I’m A Very Model of A Modern Major General’ on an X Factor-style show. If you are a Gilbert and Sullivan purist, perhaps stay clear of this one...
Read more: 10 reasons why we love Gilbert & Sullivan

Despicable Me 3 - Pirates of Penzance Clip -2017 HD
Moonstruck – La bohème, Giacomo Puccini

In the 1978 hit film Moonstruck starring Cher and Nicholas Cage, Ronny takes his brother’s fiancee to see La bohème at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Loretta cries as Mimì sings her aria ‘Donde lieta usci’ as she realises that she is in fact in love with Ronny and not her own fiancee. The film also uses music from the score elsewhere. When Ronny and Loretta begin their affair, ‘O soave fanciulla’ is heard, which is the duet that Rodolfo and Mimì sing as they realise they are falling in love with one another.
Read more: This is exactly how Puccini's La bohème makes you cry

Moonstruck La boheme
Happy Feet Two - Tosca, Giacomo Puccini.

The Romanticism of Puccini lends itself beautifully to amplifying the drama of a film, so it is no surprise that his music is found in so many films. In Happy Feet Two, Erik, a small penguin, performs a reimagined version of Puccini’s aria ‘E lucevan le stelle’ in a scene. His performance, known as Erik’s Opera, is dedicated to Bryan the Beachmaster, a giant elephant seal.
Read more: When a tiny penguin sang Puccini’s impassioned ‘E lucevan le stelle’ in Happy Feet Two

Happy Feet Two Eric's Opera