Cast and crew
Regular voices come from Lorenzo Music, Frank Welker, Maurice LaMarche, and Arsenio Hall, with guest voice Karen Hartman. The episode was recorded on July 1 and July 2, 1986. Arsenio Hall, Maurice LaMarche, and Lorenzo Music recorded on July 1; Frank Welker recorded the following day.2
The principal characters are Egon, Peter, Ray Stantz, Winston Zeddemore, the Diva, the conductor Leopold, the opera house manager Metzenbaum, the Valkyries, and the Phantom of the Opera. Both Slimer and Janine Melnitz sit this one out.
Plot
Egon invites Peter to the Metropolitan Opera, "the Met," for an evening of opera. Peter, mishearing, assumes they are going to a Mets baseball game, and turns up wearing a Mets hat. During a performance of "Ride of the Valkyries," real Valkyries appear and wreak havoc through the opera house. Peter and Egon both rush to save the Diva; Egon collides with an actor, while Peter reaches her and earns her gratitude, much to Egon's annoyance.
Egon offers the Ghostbusters' services to the Met for free in the name of art appreciation, and Leopold accepts, though his primary concern is maintaining his 20-year perfect attendance record rather than any love of art. The next morning the team arrives, Egon having traded his white tuxedo for the standard uniform. While working the case, Winston hears from the janitor about the Phantom of the Opera living in the basement; Egon dismisses the Phantom as a movie character. The Diva picks Peter as her bodyguard in an attempt to make Leopold jealous. The other Ghostbusters track P.K.E. readings up to the roof, where they nearly fall off, then down a pipe to the boiler room, but cannot pin down the Valkyries. When Leopold holds a rehearsal, the Valkyries return.
The next concert begins with the Valkyries still loose. Leopold refuses to cancel and the show goes on despite the danger. He confronts the Diva and calls her bluff; she chooses Leopold, leaving Peter tossed out of her dressing room. Boasting about being a national hero, Peter is snatched by the Valkyries, who intend to drag him off to Valhalla. The others seal the building to trap the entities inside, rig a trap near an open skylight, and capture all the Valkyries in a single trap. The audience mistakes the whole firefight for part of the production and cheers wildly for the Diva and Leopold. As the team packs up, they spot the Phantom of the Opera leaving the building; he says the Ghostbusters made so much noise he could not get any rest. They let him go without interference, more than a little dumbfounded.
Characters
The Valkyries are the episode's main antagonists, ghost entities drawn from Norse mythology. According to in-universe lore, Valkyries can be awakened by praise and will not rest until they have carried a hero off to Valhalla, the hall of the slain. Their manifestation during the "Ride of the Valkyries" performance was the first known appearance of Valkyries in modern times. Peter describes them as "supernatural fat ladies on horseback." The P.K.E. Meter readings for the Valkyries run "practically off the scale." They appear to be at least semi-solid, turning into ectoplasmic putty after crashing into structures and changing mass when they enter musical instruments and pipes. Because they could not pass through sealed walls, sealing the opera house was enough to prevent their escape. Peter Venkman was their chosen hero.
The Diva (voiced by guest Karen Hartman) is billed as the world's greatest soprano, performing at the Metropolitan Opera House when the Valkyries materialize. Her real name is never given in the episode. She selects Peter as her bodyguard partly to make Leopold jealous, though he was less concerned with romantic rivalry than with protecting his attendance record. She mistakes the proton streams and shattered lighting of the final battle for elaborate special effects and performs through the chaos to a standing ovation.
Leopold (voiced by Maurice LaMarche) is the star conductor, described as rather snobbish, who has maintained a perfect 20-year attendance record. He begrudgingly accepts Egon's offer for free Ghostbusters services. His chief worry throughout the case is that the situation will force him to miss a performance, not any concern for safety.
Metzenbaum (voiced by Frank Welker) is the manager of the Metropolitan Opera House, formerly employed at Radio City before taking the position. He struggles to manage the volatile relationship between Leopold and the Diva. He accepts Egon's offer readily and grows increasingly anxious when the team fails to capture the Valkyries before the next performance.
Production and alternate versions
Two versions of this episode exist. In the scene where the Ghostbusters fall from the ladder, one version uses the series' regular score, while the other plays "Driving Me Crazy," performed by Tahiti from the soundtrack album. The Tahiti music version appeared on the Magic Window home videocassette released in the 1980s.
The episode title nods to the 1935 Marx Brothers film "A Night at the Opera." During the episode Egon name-drops the conductor Arturo Toscanini and the composer Giacomo Puccini, Winston references King Kong during the rooftop fight, and Peter offers to tell the Diva about the time he saved the world, a likely callback to the first film. Metzenbaum mentions a previous job at Radio City, the entertainment venue at Rockefeller Center.
Writer Mark Edens later wrote "A Blue Knight at the Opera" for Police Academy: The Animated Series, which featured a similarly styled character also called "Diva."
Animation errors
The episode has several continuity slips. When the team climbs the ladder, the jumpsuit leg shown above Egon belongs to Egon even though Winston is ahead of him. While the Ghostbusters hang from the ladder over the street, the figure on the left appears to wear Peter's brown jumpsuit, but Egon is in that position. Maurice LaMarche voices one of Winston's lines. In the opera house basement, Egon, Ray, and Winston suddenly wear tan gloves they did not have on the roof, and the gloves vanish when they drop to the floor. At the start of the final battle on the catwalk, a second Winston appears in Ray's place, and after Winston opens the skylight Peter is miscolored as Ray. Winston wears Ray's jumpsuit at the end of the episode, and through much of the episode the traps are miscolored yellow with their warning stripes often missing.
Legacy
Valkyries returned to the franchise in Ghostbusters: The Video Game as the Opera Diva ghosts, though the Fandom note clarifies these are opera diva spirits rather than the Norse Valkyries of this episode. Leopold makes non-canon cameo appearances in the IDW comic series, visible on an advertisement on page 10 of Ghostbusters Issue #3 and again on an advertisement outside Ray's Occult Books on page 12 of Ghostbusters Issue #5.
References
