Our traditional bumper two-month issue is a holiday hamper packed with good reading.

For starters, there’s our round-up and analysis of the year ahead in classical and new music, opera, dance, theatre and festivals. Our writers have cast a critical eye over the dozens of seasons on offer and whether you are interested in main stage and concert halls offerings, or intimate recitals and off-Broadway-style shows, this is an indispensable guide to the who, what, why and when in 2024.

Following the success of Saul, The Magic Flute and The Golden Cockerel, Barrie Kosky is returning to the Adelaide Festival with his production of The Threepenny Opera. In a wide-ranging interview with Jansson J. Antmann, Kosky talks about creating the production for the Berliner Ensemble, as well as his brand-new staging of Chicago in Berlin and the Ring Cycle that he is developing over four years for London’s Royal Opera.

Climate change is, arguably, the linking theme running through this year’s Sydney, Perth and Adelaide Festivals. Meanwhile, the artistic directors of those events are facing tough questions about their carbon footprints. Arts journalist Steve Dow talks to artists and festival...