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

2025: BUSINESS AS USUAL? • Rising costs are inevitably having an impact on Australian arts organisations. Productions are more expensive to mount, and ticket-buyers are watching what they spend. Though there are signs of belt-tightening in 2025, including smaller casts and numerous collaborations, there is plenty to look forward to and a host of anniversaries to celebrate.

A Fairytale Start • Opera Australia begins the year with an abridged, English-language version of Laurent Pelly’s charming production of Massenet’s Cendrillon. Alexandra Wilson talks to revival director Karine Girard, conductor Evan Rogister and Australian mezzo-soprano Emily Edmonds, who plays Cinderella, about the sumptuous, family-friendly staging.

A Cultural Leadership Crisis • Australia’s arts sector faces a watershed moment, argues Samuel Cairnduff. In a social environment where binary media is deepening divisions, the arts have the opportunity to become the leading space for nuanced discourse – but only if there are major changes in cultural leadership.

WAKING THE DEAD • What is it like to rediscover a centuries-old work by Mozart? Clive Paget talks to the Austrian academic who exhumed a forgotten 12-minute serenade and one of the musicians who have recorded it.

A Chequered Past • On 9 August, 1954, Sydney model Shirley Beiger shot her two-timing boyfriend in the face. In a sensational trial, she was found not guilty of murder.

INTERVIEW Into the Underworld • Christine Anu is about to appear in her first musical since 2016, playing Hermes in the Australian premiere of Hadestown. She tells Elissa Blake why it feels like the right musical at the right time.

What's new on disc • Essential holiday listening includes a Britten rarity, stunning recordings of Elgar and Tippett, a pair of oddball operas, and three outstanding discs of orchestral music by women.

Obscura at the Odeon • Simon Rogers, Artistic Identity Director of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, talks to Maddy Briggs about this year’s series of concerts centring non-traditional music.

Welcome to Soldier Island … • After her cracking production of The Mousetrap, Robyn Nevin is directing And Then There Were None. She tells Jo Litson why she agreed to stage another Agatha Christie play.

Serendipity • Ahead of an Australian tour with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Music Director Hans Graf tells Jansson J. Antmann why he puts his distinguished career down to luck.

The Instrumentalist by Harriet Constable • ½ A ripping yarn about musical women afloat in Vivaldi’s Venice.

Maria • ½ It’s difficult not to be swayed by Pablo Larraín’s adoration and Angelina Jolie’s star power, even if the film reveals little new about Maria Callas.

On Air & Online

ABC Classic concert program – January 2025

Independent radio & streaming

GUY NOBLE'S SOAPBOX Holiday In • Travel is nowhere near as relaxing as it’s made out to be, argues Guy Noble. So, he has a novel solution – just send him your photograph.

Dreams Undreamt • Leading Australian...