Classy and classic

The Edinburgh International Festival began with a double helping of incest. Curiously, Greek — Mark-Anthony Turnage’s East End retelling of the Oedipus myth, which was greeted with universal acclaim at its premiere in 1988, and which has gone on to be one of British opera’s biggest export success stories — was tagged on the Festival website as being suitable for ‘risk takers’. Whereas Wagner’s Die Walküre — which ends its first act in ecstatic celebration of a sex act so transgressive that even in 2017 it can draw appalled gasps from an audience — was described as being ideal for ‘traditionalists’. Bizarre. Perhaps brothers and sisters sleep together all the time in Morningside; I couldn’t say.

Greek first, and Joe Hill-Gibbins’s new production for Scottish Opera and Opera Ventures confronts the audience with a dazzling white screen. Out stomps Alex Otterburn as Eddy and stands there, sizing up the audience with a glint in his eye: Dennis the Menace as Droog.