play review: TheatreWorks Silicon Valley

[calimac]

Opus by Michael Hollinger

A play about a string quartet; how could I not be intrigued? (Anyone who says that, with a title like that, it should have been about a penguin, can go to the back of the class right now.)

String quartet ensembles are notoriously hotbeds of intense interpersonal conflict. Though many of them have members who get along just fine, it makes better drama when they don't, culminating in the case a few years ago when three members of one quartet peremptorily fired the fourth and he responded by suing, winning damages including confiscation of their instruments.

This play begins with the three men of its quartet interviewing a talented young woman to whom they promptly offer the position as their new violist. Through flashbacks and continued interaction it emerges that her predecessor, a brilliant player but an erratic and unstable man, had been dismissed by the others. Any three of them together have the right to do that, so the complications that ensue are not legal. He's the first violinist's former lover (the other two men are straight), so that's one particular complication. The plot gets a little overly layered with these, and the acting is by contrast low-key and understated, an odd combination; but it worked fairly well, and I felt decently entertained by the two hours (no intermission).

What about the music? The plot's major musical event is that the quartet is to perform for a gala at the Bush White House; thus their anxiety to get the new violist in place quickly. They've been asked to play arrangements of "Hail to the Chief" and (unnamed in the play, but not unplayed) Pachelbel's Canon. They toss these aside with disdain and substitute Beethoven's Op. 131, just to really show 'em. That this is way too long for their time slot is mentioned but brushed aside; they could have considered Op. 95, also mentioned in the play, instead: it's just as challenging to listen to but a lot shorter.

The actors are actors, not musicians. When the quartet is playing or rehearsing, they mime on prop instruments while pre-recorded music plays. They're pretty good at moving their bows in time with the music, although not always fitting the actual phrasing. However, nobody has taught them any left-hand technique at all, and it's best not even to look in that direction.

The author has been a quartet violist himself, and he knows the lingo. An argument among the quartet as to whether a phrase should be played as written or with the implications of context gets a bit of West Wing style oversimplification, but overall the musical talk is good, and there's enough clever references ("I finally found the parts for Op. 131: they were buried in Op. 18") to keep the cognoscenti amused.

Comments

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

The thing that always occurs to me when I see the word opus is that its Latin plural is opera. On one hand that sheds an interesting light on musical terminology; on the other, actually using the correct plural would confuse a lot of readers. . . .

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

The word opera as the plural of opus does appear often in musical literature, and at least in context there's no confusion. Opera as the name for the art form reflects the fact that it combines music, drama, spectacle, and dance; thus, it's multiple works in one. Or, as Victor Borge put it, "The word opera means the works, and that's what you get when you go to the opera: the works."

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

Sure, it makes perfect sense linguistically. It's kind of like the process where the Greek ta biblia, "the books," became the English "the Bible" (or "the Good Book"). It kind of struck me, though, when I first figured it out (by analogy with genus/genera, which was a familiar pair of forms for me); I'd always thought of "opera" as meaning a [singular] musical work in the form of a drama, and when I spotted the linguistic pattern it was one of those "hey-I-get-it!" moments.

[catcrocker.livejournal.com]

Speaking of quartets, the St. Lawrence Chamber Music seminar (and its ensuing marathon of free, amazing chamber music performances) is next week! My brother-in-law will be working on Beethoven Opus 130, so we sat and listened to an LP recording of the Budapest playing in 1952 on Library of Congress instruments (before Sasha Schneider returned to play 2nd vln).

Hope to "see" you there.