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The Edinburgh Festival Theatre is used to hip hop.

It is after all, a designated hub for regular hip hop happenings.

But in the midst of Porgy and Bess? Onstage, in front of a formidably old audience (perhaps more used to hip replacement than hip hop).

But this ambitious combination of gorgeous music, lively dance, video installation, opera and hip hop, brought to the Edinburgh International Festival by Opera de Lyon, does actually work.

The political imagery of later unrest is a reminder of the power of the Gershwins' original piece, and offers challenges beyond a mere portrait of a poor, black Southern American community.

The film projections also allow a more graphic representation than operas often offer.

We see Clara's laughing baby, as she sings Summertime, we see a fish hook rip through flesh during the first murder scene, and we see Bess and Crown's raunchy reunion.

The action doesn't remain on the stage either.

At one stage the chorus files down the aisles of the stalls and sings by the audience's side.

If there's a downside, it's that some of the diction isn't entirely clear.

Lyrics are lost in some of the cloudier French accents.

Ironically, it's the hard of hearing who have the best deal with the simply riveting signing by Dr Paul Whittaker from a box above the stage.

Dr Whittaker, who is artistic director of the English charity Music and the Deaf, doesn't just sign the words, he practically sings them with his hands - a show in its own right as the cast acknowledge in their curtain call.

He even entertains the audience in the interval by describing the musical warm up and the ice cream sales.

The Edinburgh International Festival will be clinging to that success.

Rumours abound that their collaboration with the National Theatre of Scotland on the doomed Darien Project is proving as problematic offstage as on.

A spokeswoman for the EIF refused to comment on reports that the show is running hours longer than billed, and that its writer Alastair Beaton has returned to London.

But during an interview with ´óÏó´«Ã½ Scotland, EIF director Jonathan Mills insisted the cameras be turned off after one too many questions about the show.

We're promised a preview on Friday - watch this space.