Clive Paget is a former Limelight Editor, now Editor-at-Large, and a tour leader for Limelight Arts Travel. Based in London after three years in New York, he writes for The Guardian, BBC Music Magazine, Gramophone, Musical America and Opera News. Before moving to Australia, he directed and developed new musical theatre for London’s National Theatre.
Director Imara Savage explains why audiences should learn to love the Boho family from hell. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
German insights put Austrian romance under microscope. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
Glorious music and stellar dancing rescues routine re-imagining. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
The award-winning musician explains how he fell in love with his instrument and why he’s on a one-man mission to promote it. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
Christoph von Dohnányi speaks to Clive Paget about his life in music and his evolving appreciation for the classical tradition.
Chinese take on Puccini sets off all the right crackers (with Prime Ministerial approval).
Bruce Munro’s novel light installation enhances Australia’s ancient spiritual heart. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
People talk about music changing the course of history, but what events have changed the course of music?
Riccardo Minasi applauds Handel’s lesser-known works. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
A long life often accrues great wisdom, but beware this bank of musical knowledge will not be with us forever.
Handel’s Partenope is one of those inexplicable rarities. A tuneful, light romance, it has everything that one could want from a Baroque opera – love, intrigue, cross-dressing… Back in Handel’s time, however, the opera claque had it in for the piece. “Senesino put me in a sweat in telling me that Parthenope was likely to be on the stage, for it is the very worst book (excepting one) that I ever read in my whole life,” sniped the rival Academy’s purse-lipped Italian agent Owen Swiny. Poppycock, said Edward J Dent who described it in 1959 as “perhaps the best libretto that Handel had ever set,”likening it to Shakespeare no less. As always, the truth lies somewhere in-between. A tale of love, jealousy and betrayal, the plot revolves around the un-historical titular Queen of what would become Naples and her three suitors. Arsace, Prince of Corinth is the front runner, but when Rosmira, his former betrothed arrives disguised as a knight, it throws the field wide open. Arsace is forced to dissemble rather than admit his falsehood, and Partenope’s affections are diverted towards Armindo, the timid Prince of Rhodes. After Arsace forces Rosmira to reveal her identity… Continue reading Get unlimited…
★★★★☆ Richard Gill opens medieval windows on the sacred and profane. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
A former Italian stuntman is set to turn heads as the tenor of the moment on Sydney Harbour. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
