This month’s cover story, A Knight at the Opera, takes a deep dive into one of the biggest hits of the early 1700s – Handel’s Rinaldo.

The first Italian opera written for the London stage, the story of a brave knight battling to rescue his beloved from supernatural forces brought the house down at its 1711 premiere and catapulted Handel to fame and fortune.

Limelight Editor-at-Large Clive Paget traces Handel’s journey to London and talks with Pinchgut Opera’s Erin Helyard ahead of the company’s first-time staging of this all-time classic.

Much-loved Australian actor Sigrid Thornton talks to writer Cassie Tongue about returning to Sydney Theatre Company to play Irina Arkadina in Andrew Upton’s adaptation of The Seagull. When something feels a bit scary, Thornton says, that’s often a good reason to embrace it.

Some of you may already know that Limelight favourite Guy Noble has been all at sea for years, serving as the inimitable conductor and host on every BRAVO Cruise of Performing Arts since the inaugural voyage of 2014. As he prepares to set sail again in 2024, he reminisces on past highlights, from interviewing Bryn Terfel to conducting Also sprach Zarathustra dressed as a gorilla, in an amusing feature, Arts Ahoy!

Also this month, in more serious vein, writer Caitlin Vincent discusses gender equality in Australian opera with Jo Davies, the new Artistic Director of Opera Australia, and stage director Lindy Hume, who has run two opera companies. A new study shows that Australian opera has a legacy of inequality. What will it take to turn the ship around?

November sees the Australian premiere of the multi-faceted South Africa artist William Kentridge’s Sybil. Inspired by Greek myth, this operatic blend of magic, music, movement and imagery explores our human desire to know our future and our helplessness before powers and technologies that obscure that knowledge from us. Writer Jansson J. Antmann talks to Associate Director Nhlanhla Mahlangu and composer Kyle Shepherd about the making and meaning of this award-winning theatrical experience.

Our theatre coverage this month also includes an interview with Elise Esther Hearst on her stereotype-challenging Dickens adaptation A Very Jewish Christmas Carol, opening at Melbourne Theatre Company. And because too much of Guy Noble is never enough, he also climbs atop his Soapbox to unload on the dictatorial ushers of London’s West End. Where, he wonders, do their powers actually end?

But wait, there’s more! Limelight Editor Jo Litson gets a glimpse into the family dynamic of the super-talented Sdraulig siblings (Harry and Eliza), and Chinese-Australian erhu player Dong Ma takes you on a tour of the two-stringed instrument of which he is The Boss. You can also discover the music that moves Kate Champion, Artistic Director of Perth’s Black Swan State Theatre Company.

As always, we have in-depth, wide-ranging reviews of the latest music and book releases, a review of film historian and filmmaker Mark Cousins’ new documentary on Alfred Hitchcock, and our picks of the best live and recorded concerts across the month.

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