One of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’s last heart-to-hearts; Simone Young on Wagner; 16 opera legends choose their own best disc.

The August issue of Limelight is our annual opera extravaganza, available now in newsagents and from our online store. The cover star is the late, lamented Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in one of his last interviews. The 86-year-old bared his musical soul and reflected on his journey from WWII soldier to the world’s foremost interpreter of Lieder.

Exclusive to the Limelight website, we celebrate Fischer-Dieskau’s life and remarkable singing career with his 12 finest moments on film.

Back in Australia by way of Hamburg, homegrown conductor Simone Young gives Limelight a masterclass in the operas of Richard Wagner, which she describes as “bigger, longer and more intense than anything else.”

If Wagner is the peak of opera in terms of magnitude and bombast, Limelight also returns to where it all began, tracing how Monteverdi’s 1607 L’Orfeo heralded the beginning of a radical new form of musical drama.
Then, 16 of today’s operatic legends choose “My Finest Recording” – that special disc on which their voice shone at its very brightest.
Limelight investigates the cutting edge of the artform in an interview with 103-year-old American composer Elliott Carter on his car-crash opera What Next?, and with a our special report on ten small opera companies in Australia achieving very big things.

All this and more in the August Opera Issue of Limelight. Get your copy with free postage here.

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