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

First Love • Simone Young talks to Jo Litson about her love of Wagner, the differences between conducting at Bayreuth and in concert at the Sydney Opera House, and why Richard Strauss's Salome is the perfect opera to program after the conclusion of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra's triumphant Ring Cycle.

FASTEN YOUR SEATBELTS • Dean Bryant was keen to cast Christie Whelan Browne in the stage adaptation of the famous film All About Eve. But should she play Margo or Eve? He tells Lenny Ann Low how he came to decide she should play both, while Whelan Browne explains why it's a privilege to feel nervous about taking on the challenge.

Music's Secret Loves • Were Chopin, Schubert and Tchaikovsky attracted to men? Their letters suggest they were, but as Nico de Napoli explains, generations of archivists, musicologists and biographers have systematically overlooked, fudged and hidden the evidence.

Australia's Chopin • Frederick Septimus Kelly was one of Australia's greatest Romantic composers, yet his virtuosic piano works remain virtually unknown. Chris Latham traces Kelly's life – which was cut short at the Battle of the Somme – and introduces an event that celebrates the scale and depth of his musical talent.

Out with the New, in with the Old • Opera Australia's new production of La bohème turns its back on our increasingly digital world, in favour of paint, cloth and handmade theatre. As Jansson J. Antmann discovers when talking to director Constantine Costi and his design team, this is no exercise in mere nostalgia; it is a deliberate journey to rediscover true artisanship.

INTERVIEW An Old Masters Mystery • Jonathan Biggins talks to Deborah Jones about his new novel, Near Death in Venice – the first in a cosy crime series.

What's new on disc • This month features a seafaring debut from Beth Taylor, piano albums from Mitsuko Uchida and András Schiff, and opera from Verdi and Handel, as well as a Kurt Weill Broadway blockbuster.

Birds of a Feather • Hollis Taylor chats with Maddy Briggs about her new work for Musica Viva Australia, co-composed with Jon Rose for the Latvian Radio Choir and recorder virtuoso Genevieve Lacey.

The Brahms and the Beautiful • Following a triumphant showcase of all nine Beethoven symphonies in 2024, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra returns with a Brahms festival. Chief Conductor Jaime Martín tells Liam Heitmann-Ryce-LeMercier why.

Countertenor by Anthony Roth Costanzo • ½ Costanzo's cultural pilgrimage is a virtuoso literary performance.

Wicker • ½ Olivia Colman shines in another off-beat, magic-real film.

The Fox • Though appealing at first, the film's oddness yields diminishing results.

On Air & Online

ABC Classic concert program – November 2026

Independent radio & streaming – November 2026

GUY NOBLE'S SOAPBOX Noble by Name • This month, Guy Noble discusses nominative determinism and what might have happened if Donald Trump had a different surname. As for his own name …

WORLD PREMIERE Before Me, There Was You •...