Tabla de contenidos para March 2025 en Limelight

Peter Tregear Peter Tregear is a Melbourne-based singer, conductor and author. A co-founder of The Consort of Melbourne and IOpera, he performs regularly with Victorian Opera and Melbourne Opera. He is also an adjunct Professor at The University of Adelaide and a Principal Fellow of the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. Jansson J. Antmann A Prague-trained scenographer, Jansson J. Antmann designed Andrew Lloyd Webber's Tell Me on a Sunday in Sydney and Prague. A regular guest on ABC Radio and Editor of LaVie in Europe, he was the publicist at Darlinghurst Theatre Company until 2022 and acting Deputy Editor at Limelight, where he is a regular contributor. Steve Moffatt Steve Moffatt's earliest musical memories are of his father's dubious tenor accompanying 78s of Gigli and Björling. As a local newspaper reporter…

Each year, Limelight asks its nationwide team of critics – who have seen and reviewed hundreds of performances – to nominate the composers, singers, musicians, conductors, directors and ensembles who they believe made the biggest impression in classical music and opera. From their feedback, we create a shortlist of 40 artists and ensembles – 20 from Australia and 20 from overseas – and ask both our critics and readers to vote for the artists who excited and entertained them the most. For our 2024 awards, we decided to extend the voting period right up until the end of the year – which is why the names of the winners are being announced a little later than usual. We have also introduced a new award, presented in partnership with Giving Culture,…

“It is an incredible honour to receive this prestigious award, especially in the company of such talented colleagues whom I deeply admire. Working with the remarkable Australian World Orchestra has been an immensely rewarding experience on so many levels … I couldn't have imagined a more extraordinary group of musical friends to share the joy of singing with in Australia once again.”  —Andreas Scholl Life has come full circle for Limelight‘s Artist of the Year Andreas Scholl. One of the world's best-known countertenors, he started singing as an eight-year-old, like his father and grandfather before him, in the 15th-century church of his Rhineland hometown Kiedrich. Now, 48 years later, and as a reflection of the changing times, his daughter is singing with Germany's second oldest boys’ choir. Since causing a…

Jessica Gethin is curious. And she wants you to be curious too. “It's not about me. It's about the music, the art form, the best way to bring that in, to encourage people to have a love for the art form, to keep it relevant and to encourage people to be curious, to grow and to realise the value of what music can do.” Gethin is one of Australia's busiest conductors. When we speak on the phone in the first week of 2025, she is packing her bags for Singapore where she will conduct a star-studded gala concert of the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber. Next, she will conduct state symphony orchestras in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide and, of course, Western Australia, where she is based. There are two ballet…

Published last year to mark Thomas Edmond's 90th birthday, Ev'ry Valley is a remarkable account of the Australian tenor's life and, as his life-long friend and accompanist Peter Tillett notes, “an example for anyone aspiring to an artistic career”. However, as Edmonds tells Limelight, he only ever meant to write it for himself. “A few years back, I set down a few facts about what I remembered of my childhood on our rather impoverished farm in the upper north of South Australia, where the rainfall is fairly sparse.” One of six children, Edmonds was born in 1934 to tenant farmers outside Peterborough. “It was post-Depression and mostly mixed farming,” he recalls. “Mum and Dad scratched away, and we ate what we grew and shot.” Taking its title from an aria…

I first encountered the saxophone at about nine years old. I was playing guitar in the primary school music program and was picked with a few others to go to the high school once a week to learn a wind instrument. I'm pretty sure I was handed a saxophone, and it went from there. I kept at it because I liked it. Simple as that. It wasn't necessarily specifically about the saxophone. It was just that I found I loved music, and this was the instrument I'd crossed paths with. It was a really simple equation. When I was 14, I joined the Hobart City Band – a community wind orchestra now called the Hobart Wind Symphony – and that just blew my mind. I still remember the first rehearsal.…

“To be chosen as the 2024 Limelight Australian Artist of the Year, by both the public and music critics, comes with an incredible weight of meaning for me. This recognition holds special significance after a year that tested me in many ways, and I am deeply touched and buoyed by this show of support. I would like to thank everyone who voted, and I would like to acknowledge and congratulate all the nominees, my colleagues, who are achieving wonderful things in the world of music.” —Jayson Gillham Whether one agrees with his wider advocacy work or not, there's no denying that London-based Australian concert pianist Jayson Gillham has proved to be one of the more consequential classical artists to have performed in this country in recent years. In just a brief…

CoEditionPress, PB, 321pp, $24.99, ISBN 9780646889702 In this remarkable memoir of a remarkable life, Barry Conyngham makes clear his intentions at the outset. The acclaimed Australian composer and respected academic wanted to see his life “through the lens of being a ‘gardener of time’” but soon realised there have been many ways he's been a gardener, with many overlapping stories to tell and many ways to sequence them. “My solution,” he writes, “is to tell them as a series of separate stories. A number of stories about one life.” The chapter titles, such as Time at Home 1944–1965 and Gardening Time with the Orchestra 1968–2019, reflect this. Through the telling of these separate stories, Gardener of Time essentially unfolds as a meditation on the cultivation of a life well lived…

When did you become aware of the Goldberg Variations? I must have been around 12 when I first heard the Goldbergs on harpsichord. I have since come to revere it as one of Bach's greatest compositions and one of the greatest works of all time for harpsichord. How would you describe the piece? It is a really unique composition that appeals to different people in different ways. First, the contrapuntal mastery of the canons appeals to composers and connoisseurs. Second, the diversity of genres, dances and moods appeals to listeners. Third, the visual gymnastics of the handcrossing and virtuosity make it an enduring feat for the performer. It is often played on piano. How different is it on harpsichord? Bach specifies a “harpsichord with two manuals” for the Goldbergs. This…

“I'm so touched to receive this amazing award from Limelight. It was very special to bring Brett Dean's Hamlet ‘home’ to Opera Australia after its success around the world. To witness the orchestra, chorus and technical teams deliver Neil Armfield's production was an inspiration. Likewise, every one of my colleagues in the cast delivered a masterclass in dramatic singing every day, and I was very fortunate to share the stage (and a few pints) with them. Thank you to them, our wonderful conductor Tim Anderson, and the Sydney audience for embracing this masterpiece as they did.” —Allan Clayton 2024 was a particularly busy year for Allan Clayton who, on top of his gruelling concert schedule, returned to Australia to perform the title role in Brett Dean and Matthew Jocelyn's Hamlet at…

When Marta Dusseldorp planned to move from Sydney to lutruwita/Tasmania, she had strong impressions of what her new home might feel like. “Peaceful, serene, natural,” she recalls. “Isolated.” But as the actor would discover, instead of fearing the isolation of life on Australia's southern island, we lean into it. We drive through hours of wilderness, passing ancient forests and rocky capes, gazing in awe at the natural world that surrounds us. Sometimes, we'll arrive at a destination as picturesque as Bay of Fires, or sleepy as Strahan, and embrace the serenity. Other times, we'll break the silence, swapping isolation for the warmth of community. We visit towns at the end of the road that not only welcome us but put on a show for visitors and for themselves. From boutique…

The Gold Coast-set crime caper Gettin’ Square is an underrated gem; one made memorable by a moviestealing performance from David Wenham as Johnny “Spit” Spitieri, a long-term junkie whose lingo, manner and dress sense made him something of a cult figure. Sam Worthington might have topped the bill in the 2003 Australian film, but it was Wenham who walked off with the AFI Best Actor Award. Now, more than 20 years later, Wenham, screenwriter Chris Nyst and director Jonathan Teplitzky have reunited for a heartfelt and warmly funny sequel centred on Johnny Spitieri – which just might elevate him into the mainstream pantheon of folk-crime antiheroes alongside Eric Bana's “Chopper” Read. The story begins with Johnny attempting to return to Australia on a false passport. He's been deported from the…

RADIO *All times local No Friend of the Nazis German organist and composer Sigfrid Karg-Elert had close ties with England, Italy and France, and was ostracised by the Nazis for being too influenced by non-Germanic cultures. Writing largely for harmonium and organ, his style was both tonal and atonal, and his piano bagatelles also pushed the harmonic palette. 1 March, 4pm, 3MBS, 3mbs.org.au The Life of a Composer Explore the music of French composer Camille Saint-Saëns through a selection of works including his Tarantelle in A minor; Vois ma misère, hélas from his opera Samson et Dalila featuring Roberto Alagna at the Royal Opera House; Thème varié for piano played by Piers Lane; and his Symphony No. 3, performed by the Orchestre National de l'ORTF under Jean Martinon. 1 March, 8pm,…

Being Italian, my parents would sing us Italian lullabies and my Dad is very into music - AC/DC and that kind of thing - so I was obsessed with that growing up. But in terms of finding my voice, that was in primary school when I joined the school choir. I was also part of the Australian Girls Choir for 10 years until year 12. Oh my gosh! That was the best thing for me. Learning how to blend with others, learning how to perform on stage and how to deal with nerves, from age eight to eighteen, was the best sort of exposure. My musicianship was better for it. From age 11, I trained in opera. My sister was doing singing lessons in high school and her regular teacher…