Budapest Spring Music Festival March 2011 - Day Two

Then, to Buda, which is stuck up on a rock by the Danube. Most of that town is in the valley behind it & up the opposite hill, unlike Pest which is flat. It was very nice on top of the rock, with the palace & the cathedral & an amazing view over Pest & the Parliament Building.

We drove East past the hotel & through a pretty dubious area & then, posh villas to a restaurant with a tremendous buffet, where we were urged to fill up, as there would be no dinner opportunity. We did not need telling twice! Back at the hotel, we had a siesta, which did not end in the usual way because of too much food. We all left for the opera by tube at about 1810, two tubes, one an old Soviet one: they were built to last & the other the original & the replacement coaches are apparently, just like the first ones. The opera house is splendid & rather like the Vienna one.

Opera House Foyer

Opera House Ceiling

Opera House

The performance of Donizetti's "Don Pasquale" was a lot of fun, with no stinting on the scenery or costumes. The hero unfortuntely, as all the girls pointed out, was most unattractive & Dr. Malatesta was more so. In the second interval, Christine from Aberdeen made a conquest, a very handsome old man in formal Austrian clothes, which we & she all found enchanting.