Wonderful Melodies

To start with, let’s see the January schedule of one of Hungary’s most successful orchestras. The Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra will give three wonderful classical music concerts this January in Budapest. On 16 January, Israeli cellist Mischa Maisky will be joined by his children, Sascha and Lily to play Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, and later on they will join forces with the orchestra to perform Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 at Müpa, which was originally premiered in Budapest in 1889. Two days later the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra and the Hungarian National Choir invite us on a more private chamber music concert held at their rehearsal room in Müpa, where symphonies by Bruckner, Tchaikovsky, Mozart and Dohnányi will be heard. Liszt Academy will give home to the last January concert of the orchestra on 24 January: the band will team up again with the choir of Hungary to amaze the audience with the most beautiful compositions of Mozart.

Dancing on Air

Moving from classical music to dance, let’s have a look at the January program schedule of the National Dance Theatre. It will host several top-notch shows almost every day in January, starting with the Living Dance Archive series that aims to revolutionize Hungarian folk dancing by introducing the audience the richness of Hungarian musical and dance traditions: on 7 January the Hungarian National Dance Ensemble will present us the folk legacy of Kalotaszeg, aka the Land of Călata, a Transylvanian region. If you are open to everything contemporary, you shouldn’t miss the joint performance of Tadashi Endo, a world-famous representative of the Japanese butoh dance form and the Yvette Bozsik Company on 25 January. Their show serves as a memento to the all-time victims of wars. Another one-of-a-kind contemporary dance act is arriving to Budapest on 30 January: Szeged Contemporary Dance Company will present its performance that revolves around CREDO, the most dramatic work of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt.

The Bests of Hungarian Visual Art

In case you’re more into art exhibitions than concerts or dance shows, Budapest has got your back. This January we highly recommend that you pay a visit to Kunsthalle (known as Műcsarnok in Hungarian) that has organized some pretty gripping displays this winter season. Until 2 February the audience can learn about the far-reaching oeuvre of Hungarian animation director and illustrator Marcell Jankovics on an exhibition where his achievements as an art director are in focus, complete with his original first drawings and sketches. Kunsthalle pays tribute to another prominent artist of Hungary: photographer Éva Keleti. Visitors are invited to an extraordinary time travel through her rich oeuvre that covers six decades and comprises of celebrity portraits, grotesque everyday shots, lively photographic reporting, and many more. Last but not least, it’s very much worth experiencing Hungarian actor and director Andor Lukáts’ forays into visual arts, aka the Fate Lines exhibition at Kunsthalle. The iconic artist created a video installation to tell us about beginnings, ends, faith and hope through relatable stories of people from different backgrounds.

When and for what reason was the first CAFe Budapest organized?

CAFe Budapest Contemporary Arts Festival is the offspring of Budapest Art Weeks, which started in 1991, and Budapest Autumn Festival that evolved from the former. Our goal, the point of this transformation was to create an urban arts festival, where not only music dominates, but many exciting genres are represented and public spaces turn into festival venues. Our mission hasn’t changed since: we are looking for progressive, contemporary programs, as well as local and foreign artists to be introduced in Hungary, and we also thrive to bring the concept of contemporary closer to people. Street art performances are organized to reach this goal, but our greatest challenge this year is The Fisherman’s Bastion Is Moving House! project that will reveal to what extent we can engage locals, and whether we, festival goers can build a 16-metre installation from cardboard boxes in the middle of the city.

Olivier Grossetête, an internationally recognized, Marseilles-based artist, is one of the most eccentric figures of public and community art. He has built his monumental cardboard buildings on five continents. Millions of people have taken part in building up and knocking down close to 200 instalments made of cardboard boxes. Spontaneously gathering passersby contribute to the realization of the imposing buildings which form a tower, temple or mythical castle. The constructions are sometimes 25-metre high, consist of 1500 cardboard pieces, and weigh 1.5 tons.

What do we mean by contemporary art today?

Everything that happens today, everything that is important to us right here, right now. An art work is often inspired by a classical piece of art, but if a progressive director/choreographer brings new life to this work, and his/her approach and form of expression is up to date, we can call it contemporary. For example, János Feledi and his dancers put the story of Electra into today’s setting, which is going to be thrilling.

Which art forms are highlighted this year?

This season puts special emphasis on public spaces: we co-organize (D)OPEN Your Move mini festival – with an exciting fusion of urban, street, and contemporary dance in focus – with Trafó, the dancers of Willany Leó will improvise at busy public spaces, an installation will be set up outdoors close to Madách tér, and Grossetête’s cardboard box project will attract visitors to Erzsébet tér. In addition, we have some gripping puppet shows to mark, but our music line-up is also fascinating with both classical and pop music programs. You can’t stress Péter Eötvös’ Angels in America opera enough, but Klangforum Wien is also worth mentioning as they are considered one of the most famous Austrian formations that specializes in contemporary music.

The festival lasts 17 days. How many programs are included?

We are happy to welcome visitors with more than 150 programs at 40 different venues.

Which program has a special place in your heart?

The already mentioned The Fisherman’s Bastion Is Moving House! project and the 3-day Budapest Ritmo music festival that will attract world music lovers to Akvárium. To contrast this intensive, invigorating happening, I have to mention another favourite, Margó Literary Festival and Book Fair that gives us opportunity to get immersed in talks and books. However, Margó also boasts some special music events.

Compared to the previous years, are there any changes worth mentioning? What posed the biggest challenge this year?

We try to see every festival as the very first one of its own kind, as we find it extremely important not to become indifferent towards our job. The greatest challenge this year is probably our dependency on the involvement of volunteers and city dwellers, which is essential for the French cardboard box project on 12 October. It is going to be a whole new experience for us too.

Photo by Kriszti Németh (Egy jó kép rólad)

The location will be UP Rendezvénytér, situated in Budapest’s District IV, to be more exact, where a modern event space was opened in the fall of 2018, giving home to concerts, theatre performances, art exhibitions, children’s programs and talk shows. But this time, on the third weekend of June, UP has something really special under its sleeve, combining gastronomy with culture and entertainment.

From 11 AM on Saturday, they organize a literary brunch commemorating late Hungarian writer Gyula Krúdy with piano music, poems and Újpest-based market traders ensuring that noone will go through the day with an empty stomach. Star of Hungarian TV-series, Bálint Adorjáni, and pianist Zoltán Kontra will be present to entertain guests. Host of the event Győző Lukácsházi also takes on the role of a head waiter, promising a unique show and heavenly dishes.

From 7 PM, the first electro-swing formation of the country, Stereo Swing provides tasteful background music in UP’s cozy terrace. The band, together with lead singer, Fonogram-award-winning Gabi Szűcs know how to charm you into dancing; it is hard to resist the urge to move your feet when they start playing their Parov Stelar-inspired tunes. To complete their show, dancers will join them too while they perform their unique sounding, chill and airy songs.

On Sunday, a theatre play puts food under the spotlight. The title is: Diary of the Fresh Food Counter Employee, a comedy in which a young Pest-based writer decides to ride solo and join, surprise, surprise, the fresh food counter staff. To bring some colour into his life, he heads to Budapest Central Market Hall. Márton Gerlóczy’s novel comes to life thanks to András Ötvös’s performance; special thanks to sausages, Kolozsvár ham and liverwurst.

For further information on tickets, check out the event’s official website.

Margaret Island Open-Air Stage: Turandot

Next performance: 7 June

This year Margaret Island Open-Air Stage opens on 1 June with the symphonic concert of popular Hungarian band Margaret Island. A week later Puccini’s last – and probably the most astonishing – opera, Turandot is brought to life by Szilvia Rálik in the title role, Romanian soprano Cristina Pasaroiu, and Argentine legend José Cura. The opera was completed by Puccini’s friend, Franco Alfano, and premiered in Milan’s La Scala in 1926.

New Theatre: The Witch of Funtinel

Next performance: 22 March

Known as one of the most popular Hungarian books of all time, The Witch of Funitel, a three-volume novel, was written by Albert Wass during his emigration in the United States in 1959. The fairy tale-like story centres around the life of Nuca, a young and beautiful girl who can see both past and future. In Hungarian director Imre Kerényi’s spectacular stage adaptation, Gerda Pikali plays the main role.

National Theatre of Hungary: A Midsummer’s Night Dream

Next performance: 27 March

Directed by the Georgian director David Doiashvili, the National Theatre’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream has been a runaway success ever since its 2014 premiere. Revolving around the unusual relationship between dream and reality, Shakespeare’s popular drama is often performed as a cheerful comedy; however, Doiashvili believes that there’s much more under the surface, and aims to capture the deeper significance of the drama in this theatre play.

Katona József Theatre: Nora – Christmas with the Helmers

Next performance: 23 April

Nora – Christmas with the Helmers is based on Norwegian writer Henrik Ibsen’s scandalous play, A Doll’s House. Written in 1879, the play tells the story of Nora Helmer who decides to leave her family, which makes it one of the first instances a writer publicly stood up for women’s rights. Today A Doll’s House sheds light on the ups and downs of married life, and personal independence. Hungarian director Kriszta Székely’s brilliant adaptation starring Eszter Ónodi and Ernő Fekete is a definite must-see.

Szkéné Theatre: The Broken Jug

Next performance: 12 April

Written by German playwright Heinrich von Kleist between 1801 and 1806, Szkéné Színház’s guest performance in April, The Broken Jug of Zenthe Ferenc Theatre in Salgótarján, is directed by young talent Jakab Tarnóczi. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe first staged the play in 1808, but it was such a failure that von Kleist wanted to challenge the director to a duel. Decades later, von Kleist is considered a popular playwright all over the world, worshipped for his critical approach and unique sense of humour.

The performance is played in Hungarian without English subtitles.

Radnóti Miklós Theatre: Incendies

Next performance: 27 April

Lebanese-born Canadian playwright and director Wajdi Mouawad wrote Incendies in 2003, inspired by the war in Lebanon, historical traumas and their effect on families. In 2010 the film adaptation was released directed by Canadian director Denis Villeneuve and nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Picture category. Acknowledged Hungarian director Róbert Alföldi staged the play in Radnóti Theatre in 2017, which was later considered one of the most important theatre plays in that year.

Örkény István Theatre: The Bell Jar

Next performance: 4 April

Among other performances, including Hamlet and Diggerdriver, Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar will be played with English subtitles in Örkény István Theatre in April. Plath’s novel, inspired by her own life, exposes with brutal honesty the stages of becoming a woman. The 20-year-old Esther, starring Emőke Zsigmond, has to deal with merciless self-examination, anxiety, and insecurity during her New York adventure.

The performance on the occasion of the Day of the Dead may be a personal remembrance for all participants. In the Sufi philosophy – which has inspired the performance – it is believed that anyone who dies, enters into a wedding with eternity. And the aim of our pilgrimage is exactly to get to the wedding of a soul with eternity, and to think a little about life in the light of death and re-live the farewell of a lost beloved one during the journey.

We walk through the sand dunes of the desert. The heat is unbearable, as the sun stands at the highest point in the sky. She proceeds before me with measured and even steps, but I fall behind. With the light of the scorching sun in my eyes, her figure multiplies before me. I am on the verge of swooning. I am incapable of taking another step. My guide turns back, but in the place of her face, I see a screeching mask of stone. “Step into the circle of fire”, she commands me silently. I am filled with mortal fear; yet, I step onto the red area of the carpet.

– quotation from The Carpet

One of the main features of The Carpet is the limited number of the spectators in order to make it possible not only to watch but also to touch the set elements of the performance, which may also speak by touching them. We recommend our performance for those who are interested in the Eastern culture, and who willingly participate in a meditative journey through the desert as a contemplative member of a four-member company. The tour starts in every hour.

Performances in English are held on 5 November 2017, at 10 and 11 am.

Ticket price is 2500 HUF.

Join the FB event HERE.

Venue: BETHLEN TÉRI SZÍNHÁZ

Address: 1071 Budapest, Bethlen tér 3.

E-mail: info@bethlenszinhaz.hu

Phone: +36-1-3427163, +36-30-4563885

Webpage: www.bethlenszinhaz.hu/english/

You are invited to Hungary’s largest open-air theatre, where the unforgettable productions you’ll see are truly monumental. This year at the Szeged Open-Air Festival, it will be Tosca, Mamma Mia!, Singin’ in the Rain, Twelfth Night and The Hunchback of Notre Dame taking turns sweeping audiences of 4,000 viewers off their feet each night.

Szeged summers are legendary for the variety and excitement that they offer. You’ll find plenty of relaxation among the countless attractions in this city centre of Mediterranean terraces: lovely parks, marvellous art nouveau palaces, the Anna Baths, one of Europe’s most beautiful synagogues, the river Tisza, superb restaurants, imaginative ruin pubs… It would be difficult to list all the opportunities for recreation.

And that’s not even to mention the city’s iconic Votive Church, the beautiful Szeged Cathedral, which in the months of July and August also serves as the backdrop for Hungary’s largest and oldest open-air theatre, the Szeged Open-Air Festival. And to top it all off: all these discoveries waiting to be made are scarcely two hours away by car.

Have you ever been to Szeged’s starlit theatre? The hot theatre nights are like nothing else! The season kicks off with Tosca on 30 June. Singing the title role of Puccini’s popular opera masterpiece for the first time, and for a second performance on 1 July, will be the beautiful Andrea Rost. With a truly feminist plot updated to a modern setting, the piece demonstrates how our lives are guided by passion, and that while men appear to control the world, it is actually women who do so.

Now for the fourth year, the alluring and explosive disco feeling of Abba’s Mamma Mia! makes this musical already enjoyed by 57,000 viewers on Dóm Square an indispensable part of the festival’s programme. If you’re lucky, you can still snap up the last tickets for this production by the Madách Theatre. Last year’s Hollywood-themed musical Singin’ in the Rain likewise made for a rollicking show on the square. Brought to life on the stage was the grandiosity of the “dream factory” – and even a real rain shower during the familiar title song. You’re humming it to yourself already, aren’t you?

The forged love letters and merry chicanery of Shakespeare’s comedy Twelfth Night guarantee viewers a truly good time. With a cast list that features names no less illustrious than Róbert Alföldi,  László Görög, Anna Pálmai, Judit Hernádi, Gyula Bodrogi and Ferenc Elek, this production also boasts a unique visual style, with the stage’s one thousand square metres of floorboards covered with several tonnes of sand. This will be the scene where the comedy unfolds on the last weekend of July.

Inspired by Victor Hugo’s epic novel, the enchanting musical The Hunchback of Notre Dame offers a look both into the passionate and all-consuming emotions of Quasimodo, Esmeralda, Frollo and Captain Phoebus and the inimitable ambience of Paris. Starting on 11 August, viewers will have six opportunities to watch this joint production with the Budapest Operetta Theatre being staged by Miklós Gábor Kerényi – KERO®. The hideous but big-hearted Quasimodo will be played by Tamás Veréb, with Petra Gubik as Esmeralda.

For more information click here or here.

Margaret Island Open-Air Stage

One of the most exciting spots of Budapest’s theatrical scenery, the Margitsziget Open-Air Stage awaits you with a series of stunning productions this year, too: Les Misérables, Evita, Cats, Jesus Christ Superstar will be performed, but you can find a number of operas and concerts of popular Hungarian bands on the list of this summer’s performances between 9 June and 24 August. Enjoy the beautiful surrounding of the peaceful oasis located right in the heart of the city and let the sound of music take your breath away!

Szeged Open-Air Festival

Tosca, Mamma Mia!, Singing in the Rain, The Hunchback of Notre Dame – the Szeged Open-Air Festival has been delivering some of the best performances year by year. Visit the friendly city of the Southern Great Plain between 30 June and 20 August and enjoy the playful, moving and marvellous productions!

Gyula Castle Theatre

Between 29 June and 13 August, the courtyard of the 600 year-old castle of Gyula awaits you with a wide range of colourful programs. Among the great plays, you can find three premiers, like Shakespeare’s famous comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream with music of Felix Mendelssohn that promises a real thrilling time to all theatre lovers.

Tokaj Festival Valley

Several concerts – like popular Hungarian singer-songwriter Caramel’s performance, or former Modern Talking member Thomas Ander’s show – sensational plays or comedy nights await you between 19 May and 26 August in the picturesque setting of Tokaj.

„The members of the horde do those things which are dictated by the folk and roving music; they act as their environment wishes – which does not endure changing. It is a constant readiness, a fight for their lives – while the audience feels the sweet drops of liberation from the constraint of the modern and conventional world.”
(Petrova Miroljuba, KET Blog, 24.04.2013)

It has been a long time since Attila Kun last produced a full-evening piece in Hungary. On the other hand, it is the first time that Central Europe Dance Theatre dances his choreography. Considering that this work is the 85th in the CEDT’s life Kun was about to create a determinative work. Kun has invited Felix Lajkó’s music to this journey which has an instinctive connection with nature and with man living in nature. Lajkó’s music excludes culture but not the culture that appears on stage or in exhibition halls, rather the culture of man – of the people living in the Carpathian Basin.

This is how the Horde was created.

The title can be interpreted as a small community of people, who create a group to make life more liveable, but it can also be understood as a destructive horde which destroys its own habitat following some kind of indescribable urge. The piece investigates the spiritual dilemma of the creative man. The dilemma is the “provision” of man broken away from nature.

This “provision” is not without memories and the desire to return to nature. It is not without any sense of humour, humanity or magic that helps us through everything. It is not without formulating the retaining power of the family.

For more info, click HERE.

Boys will be boys, but the adults are usually worse – much worse. Christopher Hampton’s translation of Yasmina Reza’s sharp-edged play The God of Carnage premiered at the Gielgud Theatre, London, in March 2008 and won the prestigious Laurence Olivier award for Best New Comedy along with a number of Tony awards, including Best Play.

Véronique Vallon: Antoinette Fekete
Michel Vallon: András Balázs
Annette Reille: Nicole Chufi
Alain Reille: Gianni Verlato

Directed by Peter Schueller
Production Design by Nikolett Konkoly

Watch the astonishing play at RS9 from 7 PM on 8 and 9 April: tickets go for 2500 HUF, click HERE for further details!