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| Steven Spielberg |
If Spielberg is unable to visit Budapest in person, festival goers can expect a video message from the famous filmmaker, said Gusztáv Zoltai, who heads the Hungarian Jewish association Mazsihisz as well as the Budapest Jewish Community.
Many performers at this year's festival - the 11th - will be returning, said festival director Vera Vadas.
The festival will open with a performance by Magna Cum Laude on the A38 ship, docked in the Danube. On August 31, Miklós Budai and Péter Jánosházi will perform sefard songs in the Rumbach Street Synagogue.
Dudu Fischer will sing at the Great Synagogue in Dohány Street on September 6. The programme will be the same as that performed in Tel Aviv for the 60th anniversary of the state of Israel.
On September 1, the great cantor Benzion Miller will be joined by two young colleagues, Azi Schwartz and Yaakov Lemmer, together with the 27-member Jerusalem Cantor Choir for a concert in the Great Synagogue. On the following day, the synagogue will host a two-day klezmer marathon, featuring the Budapest Klezmer Band and the Pannónia Klezmer Band from Hungary, the Pressburger Klezmer Band of Bratislava and the MaxKlezmer Band from Poland.
On September 4, Boldizsár László and the Cotton Club Singers All Stars will sing with the Pannon Philharmonic Orchestra.
The Uránia National Film Theatre will host a concert by Bea Palya and her quintet, as well as a performance by the dancer Andrea Ladányi, in an unusual partnership with the drummer Gergő Borlai.
The flautist Eszter Horgas will perform with Andrea Meláth, György Vukán and Tamás Kovács.
A concert by Ági Szalóki, Vilmos Gryllus and Dániel Gryllus of Transylvanian Yiddish songs translated by the poet Sándor Kányádi, is expected to be among the highlights of the festival. The well known musicians recently presented the material to great acclaim in Serbia.
Theatre lovers will also find much at the festival. The Karinthy Theatre will host a production by the Petőfi Theatre of Sopron of the play Sad Sunday, based on the life story of Rezső Seress. Diána Groó will direct Kathrine Kressmann Taylor's play Address Unknown at the Spinoza House. The play shows a friendship between a Jew and a German torn apart by the rise of fascism in Germany.
The festival's organisers have cut ticket prices nearly a third, in spite of seeing their budget cut nearly one-tenth to HUF 80 million.
For more information visit the Jewish Summer Festival home page.
