Classical preview: The Rise And Fall Of The City Of Mahagonny, Edinburgh

The Edinburgh International Festival takes the shifting borders of Europe and the Middle East as its theme this year. If the musical side of the programme is less ethnically diverse than, say, the theatre, there is still an emphasis on eastern European music and performers, with a residency from the Mariinsky Theatre, concerts from the Festival Orchestra Of Budapest as well as indigenous folk musics from cultures ranging geographically from Corsica and Georgia. But the opening concert with HK Gruber conducting the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's The Rise And Fall Of The City Of Mahagonny breaks down a different set of boundaries, those between opera and musical, high art and the vernacular.