Opus

Opus may refer to:

Books and magazines

Theatre

Computing

Organisations

Transport

Opus (play)

Opus is a 2006 play written by Michael Hollinger.

Plot

The play involves the Lazara Quartet, a foursome at the top of their field but with a sudden need to replace violist Dorian, who was just fired. Dorian is a mix of an emotionally unstable man who needs medication and a musical genius who demands the best of the other three. Dorian and his lover Elliot, the first violinist of the quartet, have frequent outbursts, which have slowed the quartet’s progress to the point that Dorian is fired because he "steals" an expensive Lazara violin that was given to the group and is played by Elliot. The three remaining members recruit Grace, a talented, younger musician who is unsure of her career path. The four work to perfect their skills as a team preparing for a special White House performance. We also find out that Carl has cancer and is probably dying.

The play culminates after the White House performance with the abrupt reappearance of Dorian. Behind the scenes, Dorian proposed to Carl that the group fire Elliot, rehire Dorian, and keep Grace. Carl, Alan, Grace, and Dorian unite as a bloc and fire Elliot. An argument over possession of the Lazara violin explodes, and Carl takes the instrument from Elliot and smashes it to pieces, saying that the quartet must have "perspective". In the final words of the play, Alan says, "Elliot, Dorian, Carl and me, all of us in our nineties… playing the Adagio from Opus fifty-nine… And we come to a rest in the middle of the movement and stop, just...stop."

Opus (comic strip)

Opus was a Sunday strip drawn by Berkeley Breathed for a period of five years, 2003 to 2008. It was Breathed's fourth comic strip, following The Academia Waltz, Bloom County and Outland.

Set in Bloom County, the strip documented the adventures of Breathed's popular character Opus the Penguin, parodying both pop culture and politics along the way. It was launched with much fanfare on November 23, 2003, and was syndicated by Washington Post Writers Group. In early October 2008 the author declared he was terminating the strip because of his expectation that the United States is going to face tough times and his desire to depart from his most famous character "on a lighter note".

Characters

Opus

Opus is the title character and protagonist of the strip. Though he returned to Antarctica at the end of Outland, Opus traveled back home to Bloom County, only to find that time has changed everything and everyone he once held dear. His employment usually depended on the week's joke – since Opus began, he has so far been a political operative, a garbageman, and a newspaper ombudsman – but he was most often depicted as a syndicated cartoonist.

Avon River (Wollongong)

The Avon River, a perennial river of the Hawkesbury-Nepean catchment, is located in the Southern Highlands and Macarthur districts of New South Wales, Australia.

Course

The Avon River rises on the western slopes of the Illawarra escarpment, near Calderwood within the Wollongong local government area and flows generally north, reaching its confluence with the Cordeaux River, south of Wilton. The river descends 155 metres (509 ft) over its 32-kilometre (20 mi) course.

The river is impounded by Lake Avon, the largest of the four reservoirs within the Upper Nepean Scheme that supplies potable water for greater metropolitan Sydney. Located near Bargo, approximately 100 kilometres (62 mi) south-west of Sydney, construction of the dam wall on the Avon River commenced in 1921 and was completed in 1927. In 1963, the water supply was diverted to meet the increasing needs of the Illawarra region and now supplies all the Wollongong area.

See also

Avon (village), New York

Avon is a village in Livingston County, New York, USA. The population was 3,394 at the 2010 census. The village is named after the River Avon.

The Village of Avon is located within the northwest part of the Town of Avon. The village is south of the City of Rochester.

History

Avon was founded across the river from the Seneca Indian village called Conawagus (or Ca-noh-wa-gas, or Conewaugus, or Canawaugus). The village was located on the west side of the Genesee River, "about a mile above the ford". The Seneca religious leader Handsome Lake was born here about 1735. Governor Blacksnake moved here shortly after his birth.Cornplanter was born here around 1750.

White settlers arrived about 1785 and formed the town in 1789 as Hartford, changed in 1808 to Avon.

Mineral springs near the village made the village locally famous as a spa in the early 19th Century. The village was incorporated in 1858. Avon was also known historically for harness racing at the Avon Driving Park. The Avon station on the Erie Railroad opened in 1865.