The Styrian pop rock band Opus has shaped the Austrian music scene for almost half a century. Last year Ewald “Sunny” Pfleger, Herwig Tremschnig alias Rüdisser, Kurt-Rene Plisnier and Günter Grasmuck staged their farewell tour. On Tuesday, the “band with cult status” was presented by Hermann Schützenhöfer (ÖVP), who was still governor, with a golden medal for services to the Republic of Austria.
In his laudation in the auditorium of the Old University of Graz, Schützenhöfer said that Opus was one of the great musicians in this country and one of the very few who were able to land a world hit beyond the German-speaking world. The success story of Opus, founded in 1973 in a garage, began with “Live Is Life”, which was performed for the first time in 1984 at an open air festival in Oberwart, Burgenland. This number subsequently developed into a world hit, anthem and box-office hit, but it was also a burden artistically, because the band’s rich oeuvre took a back seat to it.
With “Daydreams”, their first album, which was enriched with classical elements, or later catchy tunes like “Eleven”, “Flyin’ High” or “Gimme Love”, Opus played in the front ranks of pop and rock music in the Alps. To date, Opus has sold more than two million of more than a dozen albums produced, “Live Is Life” has sold more than 30 million copies. There are also around 1,000 concerts – including some in South America. The one in Chile was even broadcast live on television and watched by millions of Latin Americans, and the one at Paramount Studios in Hollywood also had an audience of millions.
In addition to the diverse artistic output, the band also has a social commitment: For example, a school was built in Ethiopia together with Karlheinz Böhm’s organization “Menschen für Menschen”. Most recently, the band members have also campaigned for climate protection.
