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

Kicking Goals • Suzie Miller is driven by a desire to change the world. As her international career goes from strength to strength, the lawyer-turned-playwright talks to Jo Litson about her numerous projects, including her latest play, Strong is the New Pretty, about the formation of the AFL's women's league.

High Guys • When modern countertenors began emerging on our stages, some audience members would snigger. But times have changed. Shamistha de Soysa traces the history of the soaring male voice from the 18th-century castrati to a reclaiming of some mezzo-soprano roles today.

It Takes Two • In their fairy-tale musical Into the Woods, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine drew on Jungian psychology and revisionist storytelling to create a work that is accessible and intellectually rigorous. Jansson J. Antmann examines its structure and talks to Shannon Burns and Patrick Nolan about their new productions for two of our opera companies.

A CAPITAL OFFENCE? • Renew ANU, the controversial restructuring proposal by the Australian National University, would have had a profound impact on the School of Music, but has since been abandoned following ardent protests. Emily Thornton looks at the proposal and discusses the future for classical music in Canberra.

INTERVIEW Full Throttle • Ahead of their upcoming tour, Dutch piano duo Lucas & Arthur Jussen tell Jansson J. Antmann how brotherly love sustains them on the road.

What's new on disc • This month we feature the latest from The Gesualdo Six, orchestral music by Martinů, Shostakovich and Bach, and something utterly original involving accordion and percussion.

Musical Conundrums • Thomas Meadowcroft chats to Maddy Briggs about his new concerto for two Foley artists, a collection of odd objects and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

Glass Half Full • Ahead of his 90th birthday, two landmark works by Minimalist composer Philip Glass are being performed in a special one-off concert at Melbourne's Royal Exhibition Building as part of Now or Never, writes Liam Heitmann-Ryce-LeMercier.

Shine Like a Diamond • After starring in A Beautiful Noise on Broadway, Will Swenson agreed to reprise his acclaimed performance as Neil Diamond in Australia. He tells Jo Litson why.

The Disciple: A Wagnerian Tale of the Gilded Age by Joseph Horowitz • This novel about conductor Anton Seidl is a sweeping tone poem to a gifted musician.

Bon Voyage, Marie • ½ This gentle film is a call to action over assisted dying, as well as a family drama.

On Air & Online

ABC Classic concert program - August 2026

Independent radio & streaming - August 2026

GUY NOBLE'S SOAPBOX Simple Gifts • As endorphins flooded his brain while lugging firewood to the woodpile at his house, Guy Noble found his envy for trillionaire Elon Musk slowly turning to pity.

WORLD PREMIERE Bells of Time • Composer and saxophonist Katia Beaugeais discusses her new Piano Concerto No. 1, to be performed by Stefan Cassomenos, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and conductor Keitaro Harada, which includes...