DAEDALUS QUARTET performing Opus 131
opening with a staged reading of Opus by MICHAEL HOLLINGER
and a discussion with MICHAEL HOLLINGER, DAEDALUS QUARTET, and MARCIA FERGUSON

Michael Hollinger’s acclaimed play Opus follows the life of a professional string quartet preparing for a performance of Beethoven’s late masterpiece, the String Quartet No. 14 in C# minor, Op. 131. After a staged reading of the play, the playwright will join Penn Theatre Arts Program Director Marcia Ferguson and Penn’s resident group the Daedalus Quartet to discuss the aesthetic and historical questions raised by this unexpected appearance of Beethoven’s music—some of the most uncompromising “absolute” music ever written—at the center of a theatrical work. Why has the figure of Beethoven loomed so large in our cultural imagination for the past two hundred years? The Daedalus Quartet concludes the event with a performance of Beethoven’s Opus 131 in its entirety.