★★☆☆☆
The opera programme for this year’s Edinburgh International Festival couldn’t have been better launched than with a sharp staging of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Greek and a glorious concert performance of Wagner’s Die Walküre. What a pity, then, that this Mozart production from Iván Fischer misfires on so many levels.
The Hungarian maverick is usually stimulating even when he is eccentric, but here it’s hard to say what’s least persuasive: his conducting, casting or stage directing. On the plus side, he does have his excellent Budapest Festival Orchestra with him. Not only do the musicians produce delectably sinuous, period timbres in the pit, but they also invade the stage to embellish the wedding and supper scenes. Frankly, those are the most exciting bits in the