Program notes
The Budapest Spring Festival includes opera, ballet, jazz and classical music, street performances, pantomime and open-air concerts.
The festival takes place all over the city, and ranges from light amusements to more serious performances. Hungarian dance company Gyori Balett presented their interpretation of Petrushka. The company's director draws a parallel with life in Hungary under the old communist regime, noting that as artists, during the communist era in Hungary, they could express ideas through dancing that were impossible to put into words.
Said Janos Kiss, "after the end of the communist system, we were free to express our ideas, but when Petrushka was first performed in 1995, the Hungarian public was shocked because they saw themselves in the story. We use the body as an instrument to express ourselves. Poets and writers use words, painters use brushes to express their ideas, but we use our bodies." But the Budapest Festival isn't all serious. There's something for everyone – even for people who just want to enjoy the sunshine.