30th Budapest Spring Festival to offer 130 programs

This year's Budapest Spring Festival will offer 130 concerts, exhibitions, theatre and dance performances at 65 venues between March 19 and April 5, the organisers told a news conference on Tuesday.

The festival, which will be the 30th, will offer a thematic programme to mark the 200th birth anniversary of Hungarian composer Ferenc Erkel (1810-1893), said Maria Schneider of the culture ministry.

Under the "Erkel200" programme all six of his operas will be performed in their full length or abridged, she said.

Among international performances she mentioned a concert of British violinist Nigel Kennedy.

Speaking of other programmes featuring international stars senior official of the Local Government Ministry, Miklos Kovacs mentioned concerts by Russian cellist Yuri Bashmet, Spanish guitarist Paco de Lucia and Scottish percussionist Evelyn Glennie.

The honorary guest country at the festival will be Denmark, bringing performances by the Royal Danish Ballet, the Danish National Chamber Orchestra and an exhibition in the Museum of Applied Arts among other programmes, Ambassador Mads Sandau-Jensen said. The Crown Couple of Denmark will also attend the festival, he said.

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