There’s something attractively counterintuitive in making a new La bohème by looking to the past.

At a time when theatre can be conjured, manipulated and transformed with ever more sophisticated digital technology, director Constantine Costi and his design team have chosen paint, cloth, wood and the human hand. As Jansson J. Antmann discovers in our cover story, their new production for Opera Australia marks a return to an older idea of theatrical craft – not as an exercise in nostalgia, but as a deliberate response to the increasingly virtual world in which we live.

That idea of hands-on craft – and the people who practise it – resonates throughout Limelight‘s November issue.

Simone Young’s musical education was transformed at 14 when a teacher put on the Prelude to Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde and simply told her to listen. Decades later, Wagner remains a lifelong passion. In 2027, following the Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s ambitious Ring Cycle in concert, which culminates this month with Götterdämmerung, Young turns to Richard Strauss’s Salome, another score in which the orchestra becomes an almost visceral dramatic force. Jo Litson talks to Young about Wagner, Bayreuth, Strauss and the particular alchemy of opera in the concert hall.

Our feature on Frederick Septimus Kelly reveals another master craftsman. A gifted Australian composer whose extraordinary talents were cut short at the Battle of the Somme, Kelly was also an Olympic gold-medal-winning sculler and a virtuoso pianist who revered Chopin, yet his piano music remains largely unknown. Chris Latham makes the case for rediscovering him.

Rediscovery takes another, more complicated form in Nico de Napoli’s investigation into the “secret loves” of Chopin, Schubert and Tchaikovsky. Their letters contain evidence that raises questions about the nature of their intimate relationships, yet generations of biographers and musicologists have often obscured or explained away what those documents suggest. What we choose to preserve – and what we choose not to see – can profoundly shape the musical history we inherit.

Our theatre story this month is devoted to a reimagined classic in Malthouse Theatre’s All About Eve – one in which Director Dean Bryant has cast Christie Whelan Browne as both Eve Harrington and Margo Channing, two characters locked in a psychological battle over ambition, fame and youth. It is a feat that depends not on technological illusion but on the oldest theatrical technology of all: the actor.

There is plenty more to explore in our regular columns. Following a triumphant showcase of all nine Beethoven symphonies in 2024, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra returns with a Brahms festival. Chief Conductor Jaime Martín tells Liam Heitmann-Ryce-LeMercier why in this month’s Soundings section.

In My Music, Aunty Delmae Barton reflects on the birds that taught her to sing, and in World Premiere, composer Ella Macens introduces a new work grounded in gratitude and impermanence, and Jonathan Biggins chats with Deborah Jones about his new novel Near Death in Venice – the first in a cosy crime series.

November’s Playing Up is the domain of Baroque cellist Ruby Brallier, who finds freedom in historical instruments. In Five Questions, Neil Armfield talks about his return to Pinchgut Opera for Handel’s Semele, while Guy Noble considers the curious business of nominative determinism in this month’s Soapbox.

And, as always, you’ll find our in-depth survey of the latest in recordings and our comprehensive guide to the best in opera, theatre, dance classical and chamber music across Australia.

Enjoy!

The November 2026 issue of Limelight will be available online from Monday 21 October. Subscribe by Sunday 11 October, 11:59pm AEDT to receive the print edition as soon as it’s available.