Private Penthouse 7: Sex Opera Review

Reviewed by Peeping Tom  on  7/3/2001

Cast: Dora Venter, Natasha, Michelle Wild (Katia in closing credits), Lynn Stone, Mercedes (Eva Black in closing credits), Laureen Kiss, Phillipe Dean, David Perry, Ian Scott, Alex Mantegna.
Directed by Antonio Adamo.
Date of Production: 4/2001 (box) (released June 2001).
Running Time: ~1 hour 42 minutes.

Screenshots (Explicit Content)

Don't go into "Sex Opera" expecting lesbian trysts with 300 lb Scandinavian women in Viking helmets, DP'ed sopranos, arias in praise of fellatio, or the tragic deaths of the entire cast at the end of it all; there's none of that here. What "Sex Opera" does have is a threadbare plot concerning the art (not music) world, replete with horrible acting. It also has a great female cast, good production values, exceptional A/V quality, and good-to-very-good sex scenes. I'd be comfortable recommending it to Private aficionados and established fans of the female cast.

The nonsensical wisp of a plot concerns an artist (David Perry); I didn't care enough to figure out what was supposed to be going on, besides some deal about Perry screwing around on his steady girlfriend. The acting, and I use the term loosely, is absolutely atrocious; given that the European performers are all speaking in English, I'll cut them some slack. To be fair, some of the lines they're given are pretty wince-worthy, but even so, I felt fairly embarrassed for the lot of them during the drama bits.

I really liked the female cast in "Sex Opera"; there are some gorgeous women in this. On the not as good side, the sex could have been hotter in a couple of scenes, but some of the scenes aren't bad at all, and there are a couple of scenes with real heat (as in the second scene with Dora, and the final scene with Michelle and Mercedes). All scenes include anal sex (with the occasional gape), and all but one end with an oral cumshot. I could have easily done without all the spitting from the men, though; there's spitting into mouths or into gaping anuses in almost every scene. Not my kink.

Natasha, the brunette on the front of the DVD case, pairs off with David in the first scene. She's quite a looker, and the heat is moderate here, but I found her noises during sex to be irritating. This scene has true multiangle, with the associated camera icon in the upper-right- hand corner of the screen throughout (how do you turn that damn thing off again?).

Dora and Ian get it on next; she's an oddly appealing blonde with a feline look to her. I didn't like her attempts to look sexy by scowling nor her attempts at dirty talk, though. The cumshot in this scene is on her ass, the only non- oral cumshot in the flick.

Lynn and David have sex in an art gallery; she's a very pretty blonde, and the sex in this scene is pretty good. After the anal-sex-then-oral cumshot, she gives him an extended clean up with her tongue.

Natasha, Laureen, Ian, and Phillipe have a foursome; Natasha's noises in this scene didn't grate on me like they did in the first scene (her reactions seemed more real here). Both women take anals, and the cumshot for Laureen is on her breasts, with an oral clean up (Natasha takes an oral cumshot). A good scene.

Natasha and Phillipe get together privately (no pun intended) to continue what they started in the last scene. I thought she performed better in the last scene, and that this was a bit of a comedown from the previous one.

Dora and David have sex in (where else?) an art gallery. I liked her better here than in her first scene, but, babe, ease up on the scowling, huh? Despite the sneering, I thought the sex was very good, particularly the oral finish.

Natasha and Lynn put on a brief lesbian show for David before engaging in a full-fledged threesome. The lesbo action isn't the least bit convincing, but the B/G sex in this is moderately warm. Both women take it anally, and the cumshot to Lynn's mouth is swapped with Natasha (David also spits in Lynn's mouth before the swap, which I found unnecessary).

The final scene is split between Michelle and Mercedes (credited as Katia and Eva Black, respectively, in the final credits), who are paired with Alex and David. Michelle's appearance in "The Splendor of Hell" was one of the few things I liked about that DVD; she's even better here, truly seeming to enjoy the sex, but most of the scene's focus is on Mercedes. I've liked Mercedes in the past too, but she doesn't get into it as Michelle does. (Michelle gets quite into it, too; if not the best looking woman in "Sex Opera", she's the best performer, in my opinion. It's a real shame she wasn't in this more.) Good oral sex here (both sexes), and Mercedes has anal sex, too.

The audio/visual quality of this DVD is exceptional; there are some slow-motion cumshots, and some black-and-white transitional loops between positions (both of which I find distracting). The music level was too high for my liking during the sex, but I was pleasantly surprised that all the audio during the sex was "live" (no looped moans 'n' groans here). As I noted earlier, the dialog was in English; it couldn't have been much worse if it were dubbed.

The extras on this DVD are six trailers (including one for "Sex Opera"), a photo gallery, biographical notes (women only), production notes (the usual promotional ramblings), and optional languages and subtitles. The usual "look behind the scenes" short that I expected wasn't here, and its absence was noticed. Just hoping for another glimpse of Michelle Wild, I guess...

Librettos and arias for REAL sex operas may be directed to peepi ng tom.