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

SYMPHONIC BOACONSTRICTORS? • Labelled a “bumpkin” by Brahms, who detested his symphonies, Bruckner is now regarded as one of the greatest symphonists of the Romantic era. As four Australian orchestras prepare to perform his music on the bicentenary of his birth, Albert Ehrnrooth traces Bruckner's career, along with his obsessions and oddities.

JUST SAY ‘YES’ • As her ballet about French designer Coco Chanel heads for Brisbane, Belgian-Colombian choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa discusses her passion for creating narrative ballets about complex, history-making, real-life women with Deborah Jones, and explains why she rarely declines an invitation to make new work.

A Licence to Feel • Trent Dalton shot to international fame with his debut novel Boy Swallows Universe. A stage adaptation promptly sold out in Brisbane. Now his 2021 book Love Stories will take to the boards at this year's Brisbane Festival. Jane Albert discovers how the production came about and why audiences are so moved by Dalton's writing.

A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE? • In his new book, The Shortest History of Music, ANDREW FORD discusses why music is as intrinsic to human life as the air we breathe. But, he argues, music is neither universal nor a language. So, what is it? And why are we so irresistibly drawn to it? After a brief introduction to Ford's new book, which is published by Black Inc. as part of its Shortest History series, we run an extract.

Soundings

On Air & Online

What is your Story? • An initiative called Bravewords Live has convinced Guy Noble that true stories told well can help us understand each other.

Daughters of Elysium • Miriama Young explains how she was inspired by themes from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony when she was commissioned by Canberra Symphony Orchestra to write a piece to precede his sublime work.

The Heckelphone • Brock Imison, Principal Contrabassoon with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, explains the appeal of the “weird” instrument, and why he rarely gets to play it.

Rafael Bonachela • The Artistic Director of Sydney Dance Company discusses Silence & Rapture, a new collaboration with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, featuring the Australian debut of British countertenor Iestyn Davies.

Casey Donovan • Ahead of the Australian premiere of Sister Act, the triple-platinum recording artist her journey from Australian Idol winner to musical theatre star.