Kukuriku / Yoram Kaniuk

“In Kerem Hillel’s coherently crafted adaptation of Wagner’s opera, everything revolves around “desire and need,” addressing one of humanity’s central questions… The many details in the children’s opera make it an absolute must-see—musically, dramaturgically, and emotionally.”

“A razor-sharp theatrical collage... Hillel constructs a mirror of contemporary ideology with humor, anger, and precision. MEGA is a performance that exposes the mythologies of power in the language of theatre itself.”

“Kerem Hillel stages Wagner’s Flying Dutchman at the Green Hill in Bayreuth – an intelligent and inspired production that transforms the opera into a vivid and imaginative world for young audiences.”

“The jung director Kerem Hillel delivered everything that true Wagnerians—and those aspiring to be—could dream of: a prominently cast, highly sophisticated children’s production of The Flying Dutchman, with depth and infectious theatrical joy.”

“An intense and visually striking production... Hillel’s direction creates a poetic, image-driven theatre that balances vulnerability with precision.”

“Hillel’s poetic staging, sustained by a precise dramaturgy of light and color, translates Schönberg’s symbol-laden texts into a finely composed visual language of movement, dance, and object theatre.”

An unsettling opera, as quickly became clear, not least because director Kerem Hillel tells the piece in a contemporary way. He portrays a shattered patchwork family in which the biblical primal story does not remain museum-like and frozen, but suddenly becomes entirely present, restless, wounded, and uncomfortably close.