Limelight

Independent, in-depth and intelligent, Limelight offers Australia's finest coverage of music, arts and culture. Inside each issue, we invite you to take a deep dive into at least four main features exploring the music, opera, theatre and dance sectors, as well as articles addressing the big issues facing the arts and entertainment industry. Additional interviews, reviews and opinion pieces are included in the Soundings and Coda sections. Plus, discover upcoming events across the country in On Stage, and schedule your at-home listening with On Air & Online, which includes ABC Classic, independent radio and online broadcast information.

Limelight

Contributors

On Stage

In the Limelight

A Tale Retold • This month, West Australian Opera unveils a brand-new, all-Australian production of Rusalka. Looking back at its history, Jansson J. Antmann talks to director Sarah Giles, soprano Elena Perroni and director David Pountney, who introduced Dvořák’s opera into the Western canon.

STILL STEPPING OUT • An ‘age-quake’ is shaking up the dance world. Thanks to improved training and injury management, people are dancing into their nineties and beyond. Jill Brown looks at the collectives, classes and programs that have been set up to keep them moving.

Poetry and Music • Is there a gulf between music and verse? Not according to Melbourne-based writer James Antoniou, who examines how the two art forms have interlocked through the ages and explores their collaborative potential.

WHO ARE WE NOW? • In 2021–22, the British Council and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade undertook a joint initiative to re-examine the relationship between the two countries through a program of cultural exchange. Helen Salmon, the Director, British Council Australia, explains the aims of the UK /Australia Season to Jo Litson, and discusses how it continues to bear fruit.

INTERVIEW In Their Own Skin • In 2018, Ryan González played Usnavi in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights, winning the Sydney Theatre Award for Best Actor in a Musical. Ahead of a return season, the in-demand performer talks to Deborah Jones about finding their place in the spotlight.

What's new on disc • Melbourne Symphony Orchestra launches new label, thrilling recitals from the Cliburn winner and Piers Lane, plus Rattle’s Spring Symphony and a new Ring on DVD.

Take a Dare • Marshall McGuire, Director of Programming at Melbourne Recital Centre, tells Jo Litson about its daring new music series.

The Organist of Notre-Dame • With the beloved Paris landmark set to reopen in December, Olivier Latry recalls the inferno that nearly claimed its magnificent Cavaillé-Coll organ.

An Act of Prayer • Ahead of performances in Melbourne and Sydney, legendary tabla player Zakir Hussain talks to Jansson J. Antmann about his musical lineage and the seminal moments of his extraordinary career.

On Track, Spirit to Spirit • Norah Bagiri and Ribina Kimiia talk to Steve Dow about Straight from the Strait, the new musical they have co-written about an extraordinary world record created in 1968.

A New Turn • The Hayes Theatre Co is about to stage its first opera. Producer/director Craig Baldwin tells Jo Litson why he chose Britten’s The Turn of the Screw.

The Players by Deborah Pike

On Air & Online

ABC Classic concert program - July 2024

Independent radio & streaming - July 2024

GUY NOBLE'S SOAPBOX The Complicated Sigh

Unquiet Sleepers • Encouraged by the response to his ‘cat studies’ at last year’s Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Stephen Johnson turned his hand to programmatic writing. The result is a quintet inspired by the most haunting ghost stories ever told.

The Harp • French virtuoso Xavier de Maistre...