Flights of fantasy

These two rarely performed co-creations by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht were both conceived as experimental genre hybrids, The Lindbergh Flight (1929) being styled as a "radio cantata", The Seven Deadly Sins (1933) as a ballet chanté.

Add in the celebrated boldness of Opéra National de Lyon – who also double as a ballet company – and the bold, vision of Québécois director/screenwriter François Girard and the stage is set for a rich confluence of styles. The Lindbergh Flight charts the first solo aerial Atlantic crossing.

Charles Workman as Lindbergh is borne aloft, against a vast backdrop map of his route, over the other soloists and chorus below.

The stage's scale, plus vivid evocations of the fog, storms and snow through which Lindbergh battled, create a powerful visual counterpart to the aviator's portrayal as a nexus of contradictory modern energies.

Spectacular as François Séguin's design is, though, Weill's music and Brecht's text at times lack dynamism.

A map of mainland US frames the odyssey of the twin female protagonists in The Seven Deadly Sins, a deceptively schematic parable in which Brecht subverts conventional morality.

Centred around a stunning performance by Gun-Brit Barkmin, complemented by vivacious choreography, it's more Weillian in musical terms, a potently ambivalent mix of satire, outraged protest and the grotesque.

Tonight, Edinburgh Festival Theatre, 7.15pm, £7.50 to £59. www.eif.co.uk

The Lindbergh Flight/The Flight Over The Ocean & The Seven Deadly sins
Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Edinburgh