This month’s striking black and white cover features Anita Yavich’s costume designs for the gods Wotan, Loge, Fricka and Freia in Opera Australia’s new ‘Digital Ring’, opening in Brisbane in December.

In our cover story, Ring in the New, Jansson J. Antmann explores the mystique of Wagner’s magnum opus with directors Chen Shi-Zheng, Sir David Pountney and Neil Armfield, as well as soprano Lise Lindstrom who returns to Australia to play Brünnhilde in OA’s new Ring Cycle.

Mahler’s symphonies were deeply autobiographical. So, is his Ninth Symphony – which he wouldn’t live to see performed – about his impending death? In our second feature, Mortal Music, Limelight Editor at Large Clive Paget unravels the power, mystery and meaning of Mahler’s last completed symphony, and talks with Alexander Briger, who will conduct with the work with the Australian World Orchestra in November.

In her best-selling novel The Dictionary of Lost Words, South Australian writer Pip Williams explored the creation (mostly by men) of the Oxford English Dictionary and the women’s suffrage movement. Now, the novel has been adapted for the stage by Verity Laughton and is being co-produced by State Theatre Company South Australia and...