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 2025 • As 2025 drew to a close, we asked both our critics and readers to vote for the artists they felt had made the biggest impression on classical music and opera over the past year. So, who did they choose?

Simone Young • Critics’ & People's Choice

Stephen Hough • Critics’ Choice

The Tallis Scholars • People's Choice

Abel Selaocoe Australian Chamber Orchestra

O FORTUNA • Carl Orff's Carmina Burana is one of the most regularly performed choral works of our time. With upcoming performances in Sydney and Perth, Clive Paget looks at the reasons for its popularity and examines Orff's legacy, which was tainted by the fact that he and his music prospered during the Nazi Regime.

Room to Relax • The etiquette surrounding audience behaviour at concerts and live performances means people with disabilities often feel excluded. But many arts organisations are now offering a range of accessible options from tactile tours to Auslan-interpreted and relaxed performances. Patricia Maunder looks at what is available.

Ned Kelly Rides Again • The failure of his 1977 musical Ned Kelly was a low point in Reg Livermore's stellar career. But, as he tells Jo Litson, he never lost faith in the show and is thrilled that Stuart Maunder is directing a newly honed version for Victorian Opera.

INTERVIEW In the Sweet Spot • Australian soprano Lauren Fagan is commanding attention overseas. Returning home to play Tatyana in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin for Opera Australia, she tells Deborah Jones about the roles that will be key to her future, and why playing soccer has helped her opera career.

What's new on disc • This month features Elsa Dreisig, a soprano of prodigious talents. Then there's Allan Clayton singing Winterreise, but not as we know it, and orchestral music, some familiar, most not so.

An Object Lesson • Isobel Waller-Bridge chats to Maddy Briggs about her new album, Objects, which shines a magical lens on mundane objects and sounds.

A Radius of Destruction • Dennis McIntosh was a child when the West Gate Bridge collapsed, but he has never forgotten it. He and actor Daniela Farinacci talk to Ceridwen Spark about his play West Gate, opening in Melbourne.

Taking Root • After the success of last year's inaugural Handa Opera at Millthorpe festival, Lyndon Terracini tells Jo Litson about this year's expanded program.

At Large - Behind the Camera with Brian Large by Brian Large and Jane Scovell • An illuminating memoir by the BBC director who captured musicians on film.

Sirāt • Director Óliver Laxe doesn't prepare us for the disaster that unfolds – which makes this film so memorable.

On Air & Online

ABC Classic concert program - March 2026

Independent radio & streaming - March 2026

GUY NOBLE'S SOAPBOX Say ‘Cheesy’ • Guy Noble explains why positive affirmations drive him mad and have the reverse effect.

WORLD PREMIERE The Womb • Sunny Kim and Hilary Kleinig explain to Maddy Briggs how their new chamber work for...