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

Horrible Ends • At this year’s Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Artistic Director Jack Liebeck has programmed a concert, inspired by the Horrible Histories books and TV series, which will explore the demise of several composers. Running with the idea, Clive Paget suggests some prime contenders for classical music’s oddest and most grisly deaths.

A MERRY ART • Ahead of her title-role debut in Opera Australia’s The Merry Widow, soprano Emma Pearson tells Jansson J. Antmann why operetta deserves pride of place alongside opera, its virtuosity coupled with a healthy, much-needed dose of laughter.

REBELS WITH A CAUSE • Eddy Chen and Brett Yang have become YouTube sensations as TwoSet Violin, taking classical music to new audiences through their tongue-in-cheek videos. Violist Katie Yap - who played with the duo in the Australian Youth Orchestra - asks them how it all came about and what audiences can expect from their current live tour, Sacrilegious Games.

THE COST OF CONTROVERSY • Samuel Cairnduff explores how political pressure, weak leadership and funding models are reshaping what Australian arts organisations dare to do.

Shakespeare’s Fangirl • Obsessed with introducing new audiences, particularly young people, to live theatre, Yve Blake chats with Lenny Ann Low about her reimagining of Macbeth for Bell Shakespeare, in which the lead character is a 13-year-old TV star with a cut-throat stage mum.

Into the Light • British viola virtuoso Lawrence Power chats with Steve Dow about Isles of Light, the concert he has programmed, directs and performs in for the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and why he believes there’s such a strong viola tradition in the British Isles.

What’s new on disc • This month features Mahler from Bychkov and Runnicles, Pappano’s Planets, a Beethoven project completed, and choral discoveries from a distant branch of the Bach family tree.

Inspired Intercultural Music • Paolo Hooke talks to composer Alex Chilvers, pipa player Lulu Liu and harpsichordist Anthony Abouhamad about Tang Suite, a new work inspired by ancient pipa manuscripts discovered in China’s Mogao Caves.

Savoy to Titipu • A new album uses period instruments and imaginative arrangements to explore the songs of Sir Arthur Sullivan as they might have been heard in their day. Clive Paget talks with its conductor John Andrews.

Reframing Bennelong • Steve Dow talks with actors Googoorewon Knox and Guy Simon, and playwright Jane Harrison about her new play Bennelong in London.

Kids, Wait Till You Hear This! by Liza Minnelli, as told to Michael Feinstein • ★★★★ 1/2 This searingly frank tell-all memoir celebrates a true original, warts and all.

Sound of Falling • ★★★★ This dark but memorable German film turns a lens on the cruelties suffered by related women across four time periods.

On Air & Online

Rowdy Crowds • As a young pianist, Guy Noble played at a fair few corporate gigs and opera fundraisers. He explains why they were some of his most depressing experiences as a performer.

The King Walks in the Orangerie...