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 LIMELIGHT ARTISTS OF THE YEAR FOR 2024 • Once again, our reviewers and readers have voted for the Australian and international artists who blew them away during the past year. We are also presenting a brand-new award for favourite performance. So, who are the winners?

Jayson Gillham • Critics’ & People's Choice

Allan Clayton • Critics’ Choice

Andreas Scholl • People's Choice

Simone Young Conducts Die Walküre • People's Favourite Performance

Perfect Isolation • Stephanie Eslake explains how Tasmania's secluded, idyllic location has inspired a creative movement, making the remote island state an ideal place for music and arts lovers to visit.

On the Up (beat) • Jessica Gethin is fast becoming one of Australia's busiest conductors. She talks to Harriet Cunningham about her flourishing career, her new role at Orchestra Victoria and her mission to inspire others to be as curious about music as she is.

Bite-size Bard • Thirty-six Shakespeare plays across eight days – and not an actor in sight. Instead, one performer tells the story using a cast of household items, including jam jars, pepper grinders and a cheese grater.

A PASSION FOR BACH • Colonial Australians may have struggled with JS Bach's St Matthew Passion, but the composer's music quickly found a following Down Under. He is now acknowledged as a genius, of course, but was there something about his rebellious nature, reflected in his music, that appealed to audiences here? A cosmological connection perhaps? Steve Dow talks to musicians and musicologists about why Australians can't get enough of Bach.

INTERVIEW Winter is Coming • Schubert's Winterreise is widely regarded as the pinnacle of German Lieder. German baritone Matthias Goerne talks to Clive Paget about why he is so drawn to the dark song cycle, which he will perform in Australia this month, together with Schubert's Schwanengesang and Die schöne Müllerin.

What's new on disc • This month features Spanish Baroque opera, castanets and all, pitch-perfect Mahler from Simon Rattle, and the winner of a notorious song contest (hint: it isn't Eurovision).

Into the Mud • Audible Edge is “an experimental music bender” in Boorloo/Perth. Its co-curators Annika Moses and Josten Myburgh give us the festival low-down.

Fine Company • Thomas Edmonds talks to Jansson J. Antmann about life on the opera stage and the people he's met along the way.

Gardener of Time: a memoir by Barry Conyngham • A noteworthy Australian composer explores the musical gardens he has tended.

Spit • 1/2 Ex-con Spit has zero leading man appeal – but David Wenham is so brilliant in the role, you'll fall for him anyway.

On Air & Online

ABC Classic concert program - March 2025

Independent radio & streaming - March 2025

GUY NOBLE'S SOAPBOX For Name's Sake • Discovering how many Brian Coxes there are, Guy Noble envisages a special conference. Perhaps he could organise a Guy Noble get-together as well.

WORLD PREMIERE Fast Blue Village 5 • When the...