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

The Big Reveal • A new opera about Las Vegas’s famous magic duo, Siegfried & Roy, has its world premiere at the Sydney Festival. Deborah Jones talks to its creators Constantine Costi and Luke Di Somma, as well as Kanen Breen who plays Roy, to find out what’s in store.

RHYTHM AND BLUEY • Blown away by the ingenious use of music in the award-winning cartoon Bluey, Andrew Luboski talks to lead composer Joff Bush and hopes that the show might trigger a renaissance in musical education in Australia.

The Mahabharata, but not as we know it • In 1988, Peter Brook’s legendary staging of the ancient Sanskrit epic, the Mahābhārata, thrilled audiences at the Adelaide Festival. Now, Canada’s Why Not Theatre is bringing its new production to the Perth Festival. Elissa Blake talks to its co-creators Ravi Jain and Miriam Fernandes.

Curtain Up! Anchors Aweigh! • Are you partial to cruising? Do you love the performing arts? Then why not combine the two? Jo Litson embarks on the BRAVO Cruise of Performing Arts and returns refreshed, relaxed and thoroughly entertained.

INTERVIEW Outside the Box • Virtuoso pianist, composer and influencer, Hayato Sumino aka ‘Cateen’ is a force to be reckoned with. As his new album Human Universe is released, he talks to Jansson J. Antmann about life on the concert stage and online.

The 2024 Limelight Recording of the Year • Competition was fierce but independent labels swept the board.

Category Winners

Good Tidings • It’s beginning to sound a lot like Christmas. Clive Paget recommends eight of the best new albums featuring festive music.

Stories of Water and Earth • Claire Kilgariff, Artistic Director of Darwin’s Arafura Music Collective, talks to Maddy Briggs about collaborating with Ensemble Offspring and commissioning a new work.

A Wonderful Folly • Stuart Maunder will fulfil a bucket list dream when he directs Sondheim’s Follies for Victorian Opera. He tells Jo Litson why the musical is so special, and challenging.

Beethoven's Ninth Symphony: Rehearsing and Performing its 1824 Premiere by Theodore Albrecht • This vivid account transports you to 19th-century Vienna.

Conclave • This juicy dramatic thriller, set in the Vatican, has a carefully handled zinger of an ending.

On Air & Online

ABC Classic concert program - December 2024

Independent radio & streaming - December 2024

GUY NOBLE'S SOAPBOX Less Misérables • Should we expect every concert to be ‘unforgettable’? Guy Noble suggests that good art helps reduce our misery, and when something extraordinary comes along, that’s the cream on the cake.

Aragonite • Percussionist/composer Thea Rossen tells Jo Litson about her new ocean-inspired work, performed on flowerpots, glass, metal and dried coral, which was commissioned by Brisbane Music Festival.

The Alemba • Composer Moya Henderson traces the history of one of the instruments she invented while in residence at the CSIRO in 1983, which distills the sound of the triangle.

Sally Dashwood • The dancer,...