Fiona Campbell’s Handel and Guy Noble’s delightful comic song, complete with a surprise tap-dance solo.

“Cut those limes and light the lights; it’s classical music’s night of nights,” sings Guy Noble. And so it was: the 2011 Limelight Awards.

Voted by Limelight readers and held at the Utzon Room, Sydney Opera House, the annual awards celebrate the finest performances in classical music, world music and jazz, with Vladimir Ashkenazy, Teddy Tahu Rhodes and the Australian Chamber Orchestra among the winners in 2011.

This year, our compère Guy Noble opened proceedings with his own comic song, composed specially for the event. The piano pastiche romps through Mozart, Gershwin, Richard Strauss and Beethoven, but the climax is the surprise tap-dance solo from Limelight editor Francis Merson – not to be missed!

Limelight also made mezzo-soprano Fiona Campbell sing for her supper when she claimed the gong for Best Solo Performance (Haunting Handel with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra). In keeping with the mood and theme of the concert that earned her the Limelight award, she serenaded the crowd with an tear-jerking Lascia ch’io pianga from Handel’s Rinaldo, accompanied by Noble on piano.