'Opus' blends playwright's passion for drama and music

Fierce rivalries. Keen suspense. Sexual tensions.

All are fodder for drama. And how about people clashing during a rehearsal of the "Alla Danza Tedesca" movement from Beethoven's String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat Major? Or while applying resin to their bows?

In crafting his esteemed play "Opus," writer-musician Michael Hollinger says he found drama aplenty in the rarefied realm of classical music.

"Opus," which debuts locally tonight at Seattle Repertory Theatre, considers a distinguished string quartet (played by Charles Leggett, Shawn Belyea, Allen Fitzpatrick and Todd Jefferson Moore) that reunites after a bad breakup, to perform at the White House.

But when the quartet dwindles to a trio, a harmonious violist must be found, pronto — a nerve-wracking task for the musicians, and their female candidate (Chelsey Rives).

Since its 2006 debut at Arden Theatre Company in Philadelphia, "Opus" has struck the right chords in productions across the U.S.

Critics praised it as "taut, smart, thoroughly entertaining" and "marked by a nuanced intelligence in its depiction of the complex relationship between musicians' lives and their art."

An Oberlin Music Conservatory grad who is a theater professor at Villanova University, Hollinger says the play was a chance to merge his two artistic passions.

"What intrigued me was that chamber music is a dialogue, and dialogue is musical," he said by phone from Pennsylvania.

"And if you play music and do theater, it's interesting to think of your characters in musical terms."

Hollinger dreamed up "Opus" two decades ago, but didn't sit down to write until he took up the viola again a few years go, after a long break.

"It's as much about theater-making as music-making. In both you have high artistic ideals that human fallibility obstructs, interdependence and the knowledge that art is ephemeral."

Since few actors could rip confidently through a Beethoven score, Hollinger devised a way for an "Opus" cast to capture the joy of music without making any.

"Onstage they do essentially what lip-synchers do," he explained. When recorded music is heard, "the actor's left arm is utterly still, and the right hand is bowing to the music. That lets you move with the music and each other, doing the kind of dance a fine string ensemble actually dances together."

The Rep actors also had a crash course in string-instrument basics from violist Melia Watras and her violinist husband, Michael Jinsoo Lim, both members of the Corigliano String Quartet.

Other works depict the complex personal/artistic "dance" of chamber groups — Vikram Seth's novel "An Unequal Music," Damian Lanigan's recent play "Dissonance."

For Hollinger, a string quartet is a universal metaphor. "It's about people uniting to make something good happen, while fighting their lesser natures."

Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com