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With modern pens, it's seems a pretty invariable rule that the top of the line should be "big". With most companies, this has been taken to mean pens that are definitely oversize as their flagship models. Visconti has been the exception to this rule. Until now... The Visconti Opera series has been a great success for them. Design-wise, it was a step in a new direction for the fountain pen, with a unique "squared circle" shape to the cap and barrel. It was offered in several colors, and has since become a well accepted part of their lineup.
In terms of weight, it's no lightweight, at 1 3/4 ounces, but it's not unduly heavy. The use of a metal section keeps the weight fairly low in the barrel, which helps with the balance in the hand. I found that for me, the Opera Master handled best without posting the cap, and I'm guessing that's going to be the case for most folks, given the length with the cap posted. To borrow a line from Henry Ford, the Opera Master is available in any color you want, so long as you want black. This makes for a very serious looking pen, the use of bright silver trim livens it up just enough to keep it from seeming staid or old fashioned, which probably wouldn't have gone well with the novel shape of the cap and barrel. The clip is the new Visconti design which consists of a slight flat sided curve with Visconti running along the sides. The flat sections of the cap and barrel are engraved with fine lines running the length of the pen. This doesn't sound like much decoration, but combined with the bright silver trim, it's enough to give the Opera Master a clean, modern look, stylish without being too flashy. It's a very elegant pen.
That said, the Opera Master does manage to integrate the smaller nib into the oversize design extremely well. Unlike many oversize pens saddled with smaller nibs (the OMAS 360 comes to mind!) when you take the cap off you are not immediately struck by the size of the nib in relation to the barrel. The use of a contrasting metal section and barrel end combine to make the Opera Master seem longer than it is, and this keeps the nib from appearing "too small" at first glance. Given the constraints of designing an oversize pen with a nib of this size, Visconti have done very well.
At the end of this is the plunger, it's pulled all the way out and the nib inserted into the ink. Pushing the plunger in creates a vacuum which is released when the gasket at the inside end of the plunger rod reaches an enlarged section of the tube. As soon as the vacuum is released, the ink is pulled up into the chamber. While this particular version of the mechanism doesn't hold as much ink as those Visconti models that utilize the entire barrel as the ink chamber, it does offer the advantage of providing insulation for the ink supply, which should make for a more reliable ink flow. It also makes the pen itself much easier to manufacture, and service. Visconti is offering the Opera Master in both fountain pen and rollerball versions. The packaging is up to the standards of a flagship model, consisting of a large wooden presentation case and a crystal inkwell designed to match the pen's shape. The Opera Master is a great step forward for Visconti. They've managed to produce a truly oversize flagship model that should compete well with other large pens on the market today. If you need a "big" pen, it's worth a look. Copyright 2005 William Riepl All images copyright 2005 William Riepl
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The
new Opera Master is the Opera enlarged. At last Visconti have a flagship
that can stand beside pens such as the Montblanc 149 or Pelikan M1000!
The Opera Master is that big. At 6 inches long closed, and 7 1/4 inches
long if you post the cap, this is a pretty imposing pen. Leave the
cap off and you're still looking at 5 1/2 inches long. The section
is 1/2 inch across. By any definitions, this would be considered a
big pen! 
The
nib is the standard Visconti nib, and is really the only complaint
I might be able to raise about the Opera Master... This pen screams
out for a bigger nib, something more on the lines of a #10 nib. Montblanc,
Pelikan, and Delta have all produced their largest pens with oversize
nibs to match. It's not that the nib on this pen is in any way bad,
our sample actually has a very nice, slightly springy medium nib that
was a real pleasure. It's just that a bigger nib would have set this
pen apart from their regular line a bit more.
Filling
is via Visconti's well known plunger-vac style mechanism. Unscrewing
the barrel from the section reveals a bright silver tube with an ink
view window in the side. 