Yannis Kokkos, director and set designer, was born in Greece. He began working as a designer in 1969 with theatre director Antoine Vitez and in 1987 he began his work as a director for theatre and opera. He has directed and designed many opera productions including Don Giovanni (Mozart), Tristan und Isolde, Der fliegende Hollander (Wagner), Nabucco, Macbeth (Verdi), Samson et Dalila (Saint-Saens), Les Troyens (Berlioz), Die Frau ohne Schatten (R. Strauss), Yevgeny Onegin (Tchaikovsky), Hansel und Gretel (Humperdinck), Medea (Cherubini), Tancredi (Rossini), Turandot (Puccini), Assassinio nella cattedrale (Pizzetti) and many others. He worked at La Scala in Milan and in the opera houses of Paris, Geneva, Palermo, Brussels, Toulouse, Munich, Montpellier, Florence, Vienna, St. Petersburg, Bari, Pesaro, Lyon, Bologna, Seville and many others. He has received numerous international prizes and awards including the Olivier prize in London, the Moliere prize in France and others. This is his first work at the Israeli Opera.