There is
more to Dutch art than Rembrandt and one-eared neurotics, although there is
room for them as well. The evidence will be on show in Budapest between 15 February and 12 March
during the LOW Festival, a month-long showcase of Dutch and Flemish arts.Â
Budapest awakes from winter sleepBudapest’s lively summer nightlife scene goes into hibernation every winter, but this year the green shoots of new life are already visible.
Basketball’s most famous team the Harlem Globetrotters will show off their magical skills in Budapest next month.
The organisers of this year’s Opera Ball are promising a fairytale romantic evening. This year’s star guest, the pianist Richard Clayderman, who Nancy Reagan named the “prince of romance” some years back, will entertain the guests of the 13th Opera Ball on 2 February.
New Year’s
Eve is almost unimaginable without it. The legend goes that when the
Benedictine monk Dom Perignon first tried the sparkling wine he had invented
around the turn of the 18th century he exclaimed: “Come quickly, I am drinking
the stars!”Â
The annual must-do eventThe scent of mulled wine, cinnamon and overcooked sausage reminds us what Christmas outdoors is all about. The Christmas Market on Vörösmarty tér is a great way to avoid the lurid and tawdry offerings of the retail giants and the imprecations of moneylenders to load up on debt. Hungary’s shopping centres and hypermarkets have been distressing shoppers with nauseating renditions of “Jingle Bells” and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” and poor-quality Chinese Santa Claus puppets since late October. Luckily, there is an alternative.
Following Balázs Kovalik’s production of Elektra at the State Opera, audience members are likely to look at their environment with different eyes the next time they visit the baths. The set – designed by Csaba Antal – is surgically cold with metallically gleaming showers. Although all traces of Klytaemnestra’s gruesome murder of her husband Agamemnon have been removed, the apparent idyll of the bathing maidservants still creates a sense of unease.
Est Media Kft., a subsidiary of the Econet media group, is to acquire the festival organiser Sziget Kft. for HUF 4.95 billion (EUR 19.48 million) in a number of stages. The purchase has been tied to several conditions. Under the deal, chief organiser Károly Gerendai will stay on for another five years. Sziget Kft. announced last week that the festival will be shortened by two days.
A global superstar on the rise Hungary has produced many virtuoso pianists, but arguably none since Franz Liszt have exhibited the star potential of Ádám György. György’s virtuosity and his sensitive interpretations have won him critical acclaim and built him a fan base worldwide. On Saturday, 24 November at 7:30 pm, György will perform pieces by Bach, Chopin, Liszt and Mendelssohn, as well as improvisations on well-known melodies, in a solo concert at the Liszt Ferenc Music Academy’s Great Hall.
