It’s hard enough for an opera company to survive without regular government funding, but staging Wagner’s monumental Der Ring des Nibelungen is something else. Yet that is exactly what Melbourne Opera is soon to do, presenting the first independent Ring Cycle in Australia since 1913. In this month’s cover story Gold Rush, Patricia Maunder traces the history of Melbourne Opera and talks to director Suzanne Chaundy, as well as producer and resident conductor Greg Hocking about the company’s new Ring, which has three cycles in Bendigo in March/April 2023.

The cover of Limelight’s September 2022 issue

How can orchestras adapt to stay relevant? They need to get with the times if they are to attract a younger, broader demographic, argues Sam Weller, in his feature Orchestrating Change. Weller is a conductor and the founding Director of Ensemble Apex. He recently undertook a two-year master’s degree offered jointly by the Conservatory of Amsterdam and the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, for which he wrote a thesis addressing the different ways orchestras can adapt their practice to meet the needs of a contemporary audience. He draws on that research here,...