'Budapest Summer Festival' Kicks Off This Month Featuring World Stars

  • 29 Jun 2020 11:14 AM
  • Budapest Business Journal
'Budapest Summer Festival' Kicks Off This Month Featuring World Stars
This annual outdoor festival organised on the open-air stages at Margaret Island and Városmajor, promises to be 'Hungary's most multicultural festival', providing many events including international names like Piotr Beczala and Andrea Rost, and Emir Kusturica & The No Smoking Orchestra.

The grand opening gala will take place on 17 July 2020, and the outdoor summer season of entertainment runs until 19 September.

The Margaret Island Open-Air Theater will open the season with an opera and operetta concert by Andrea Rost and Piotr Beczala, with other shows including Bánk bán, Elysabeth, and early night music concerts.

World-famous opera singers Rost Andrea and Piotr Beczala will delight the audience with popular and popular opera and operetta hits. The melodies of the most popular arias and duets of the stage works of Verdi, Puccini, J. Strauss, Lehár, and Imre Kálmán will be performed in the open air.

The orchestra of the Hungarian State Opera House is conducted by Péter Halász, the former principal music director of the Hungarian State Opera House, and the permanent conductor of the Hamburg State Opera House.

With the opening show, the management of Margaret Island would like to thank all those who stood their ground during the pandemic: healthcare professionals, decision-making and coordinating leaders, ministries, Semmelweis University, the government, hospitals, and last but not least the public.

The management of the theater wants to address and engage the audience with a rebuilt summer repertoire of already planned programs as well as new events, concerts, and performances.

A day before the series of state events on August 20, Ferenc Erkelʼs national opera Bánk Bán will be performed under Attila Vidnyánszkyʼs direction. Levente Molnár, Viktória Mester, Mónika Fischl, Mihály Kálmándy, Kolos Kováts, Gergely Boncsér will perform in the joint performance with Coopera.

The performance will be staged with the participation of the excellent orchestra, choir and ballet choir of the Cluj-Napoca Hungarian State Opera, conducted by Gergely Kesselyák. Furthermore this summer, with the opening of the theater, the Theater Cruises will also start.

To the delight and request of many families, there will be free family and children ʼs programs on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Renaissance mornings at the ruins of St. Margaret and literary and musical walks will be organized in cooperation with the Petőfi Literary Museum.

In an extraordinary manner, there will also be programs during this seasonʼs Indian Summer in September, such as the musical Elisabeth, by Szilveszter Lévay and Michael Kunze. The large-scale musical, based on the life of Austrian Empress and Hungarian Queen Elisabeth will be on display twice on Margaret Island this September.

The long-awaited meeting between the audience and the artists will be possible in other forms in addition to classical music and contemporary productions.

The management of the theater is also preparing to supplement the offer of the unusual summer season with a novelty.

Mini bands formed from professional classical musicians give six free concerts, with a setlist compiled from a classical repertoire tailored specifically for these occasions, appropriate to the venue and occasion. In the shady garden of the Margaret Monastery, musical events entitled “Early Evening Prom” will begin at 5 p.m.

Additional events to be presented on Margaret Island during the summer theater season from mid-July to mid-September will include a concert entitled Fellini 100, of Nino Rotaʼs soundtracks with the Danubia Orchestra of Óbuda.

The performance of Emir Kusturica and the band No Smoking, the concert of Péter Geszti and his friends, and the show of the Budapest Bar as a returning one are recommended for those who like popular music. 

The current and future objective of the theater is to serve the needs of the audience in a wide range of places in the green area of ​​Margaret Island, and to invite guests who have been missing art to take part in a meaningful way of recreation.

The management of the Margaret Island Open-Air Theater is prepared and pays special attention to the observance of the current health and safety regulations, in order to strengthen the sense of security of its guests and thus offer a liberating experience.

20% discounted tickets for Margaret Island Open-Air Theaterʼs events are available at Interticket offices until July 1.

Find the detailed program of events here.

Venues: 

Margitsziget Open Air
1138 Budapest, Zielinski Szilárd stny.

Városmajor Open Air
1122 Budapest Városmajor 6835/17 hrsz

More: 
szabadter.hu


Photo courtesy of the organisers

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Hungary's largest and oldest source of business and financial news in English. Since 1992 it has presented essential information on Hungarian business life, including international analyses about the country. These days the BBJ newspaper is published every other week, while it releases daily business news online including premium paid content.

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