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Eight hour show to open Edinburgh International Festival

Keith Saunders A female performer hangs from a sheet which is wrapped around her body. She is upside down and her legs are open and toes pointed. She has long hair.Keith Saunders
Orpheus and Eurydice is a promenade dance work that transforms Edinburgh's Old College Quad into a stage for Dance People

An eight-hour choral extravaganza of a universal prayer is to open the Edinburgh International Festival at the Usher Hall.

John Tavener's The Veil of the Temple will be performed by Edinburgh Festival Chorus, Monteverdi Choir and the National Youth Choir of Scotland.

Other highlights include opera incorporating circus performers for a fusion of music and acrobatics in Orpheus And Eurydice, and Breaking Bach - where hip-hop meets 18th-century period instruments.

Succession star Brian Cox also returns to the Scottish stage for the first time in a decade in Make It Happen - a satirical play exploring Scotland's role in the global financial crash of 2008.

Cox will play pioneering Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith in the work by playwright James Graham.

Colin Hutton Brian is wearing black against a black background. He is looking at the camera. He has a goatee beard and white hair.Colin Hutton
Succession star Brian Cox is also set to return to the Scottish stage for the first time in a decade, starring in Make It Happen

The programme this year is tied to the theme of "truth".

It will see more than 1,700 artists from 42 nations, including 600 from Scotland, take to the stage in Edinburgh from 1 - 24 August.

Scottish Ballet's Mary, Queen of Scots is a major new production from choreographer Sophie Laplane and co-creator James Bonas that draws on the complex relationship between Mary, Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I of England.

A choral workshop with amateur singers is also set for the festival's closing concert, Mendelssohn's Elijah.

Festival director Nicola Benedetti said the arts were in a position where they could separate fact from disinformation.

She said: "The arts are at an advantage with a problem like that, because what we're trying to get across is that talking about truth versus when you're talking about fact."

West Beach Studio There is a silhouette of a man looking at a picture projected onto a wall of a woman looking through clouds. West Beach Studio
Other highlights include opera incorporating circus performers for a fusion of music and acrobatics in Orpheus And Eurydice

Violinist Benedetti, who was made an MBE in 2013 for her services to music and charity, said the opening show was one to watch.

She said: "It's a concert that's going to be an eight-hour performance with 250 singers featuring our festival chorus, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year.

"There'll be an incredible exploration into the essence of truth from perspectives around the world, looking at how all religions actually speak a common, universal truth, so it's breaking down some of that disharmony."