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

FOSTERING OPERA'S FUTURE • A new collaboration between the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) features the premiere of four short operas written by Master's students. Shamistha de Soysa talks to the four composers about their works, which explore ideas around mothers and motherhood, and their views on opera as an art form.

Marching to Her Own Beat • Dame Ethel Smyth fought hard for recognition of her music. As the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs prepares to perform her Mass in D and The March of the Women, Clive Paget traces the career of the formidable, trailblazing British composer and suffragette.

CLAYTIME • Elena Kats-Chernin cried when she first saw Adam Elliot's animated clay feature Mary and Max, which featured a piece of her music. As she tells Steve Dow, it was a dream come true when Elliot asked her to compose the entire score for his new claymation movie Memoir of a Snail.

An Awfully Big Adventure • Peter and the Starcatcher – a tale about the boy who became Peter Pan – was a hit on Broadway. Now, Brisbane company Dead Puppet Society is staging a brand-new Australian production. Elissa Blake talks to the show's director and designer David Morton.

Thoroughly Modern Maestra • Kyiv-born Finnish conductor Dalia Stasevska chats with Clive Paget about her path to the podium, her support of Ukraine, her growing love of Ukrainian music and why she has released a classical mixtape.

What's new on disc • This month includes Don Quixote, but not as you know him, rare archival Bruckner, two of Germany's most interesting Lieder singers and Meyerbeer's greatest hit.

Something In Between • Composer and Artistic Director Evan J Lawson chats with Maddy Briggs about Forest Collective's upcoming, multidisciplinary concert series.

The Last Wharf Revue • After 25 years, the Wharf Revue is calling it quits. Writer, director, performer and co-creator Jonathan Biggins looks back at the history of the satirical show ahead of its final production, The End Of The Wharf As We Know It!!!

A Familiar Beat • Gillian Wills tells Jo Litson about her debut novel Big Music.

No Autographs, Please! by Katherine Wiles • 1/2 An entertaining insider's guide to life in the Opera Australia Chorus.

On Air & Online

ABC Classic concert program – October 2024

ABC listening highlight

Independent radio & streaming – October 2024

Freedom of Speech? • Guy Noble asks whether artists have the right to free speech, or if it depends on the context. And why are Australian arts organisations having such trouble retaining cultural leaders?

Bittersweet Symphony • Based in Adelaide, where he is Director of the Elder Conservatorium of Music, Graeme Koehne introduces us to his latest orchestral work for the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, which he describes as “an aesthetic discussion in music”.

The Piano • Blind from birth, Nobuyuki Tsujii began playing his toy piano when he was two, and he has lost none of the joy he felt as a child.

Madeleine Easton • The...