Káel earned a degree in structural and architectural engineering in 1986 from the Technical University of Budapest's Department of Structural Engineering. In 1989, he graduated from Budapest's College of Theatre and Film Arts, where he studied film and television directing under teachers Károly Makk, István Szabó, Gyula Gazdag, Elemér Ragályi and György Illés.
After serving as a manager at the Balázs Béla Film Studio from 1989 and 1990, he went on to work at Novofilm Kft between 1990 and 1993. In 1990, he took part in the East-West Producers Seminar in London under the tutelage of Lynda Myles and David Puttnam. In 1990, he founded the Happy End Advertising Agency, later becoming its creative director. A member of the Association of Independent Hungarian Producers from 1995 to 1998, he became founder and executive director of Z+ Hungarian Music Television. In 2001 and 2002, he served as artistic advisor for the Millenéris Theatre and Television Studio, where he developed the core concept for that institution. Starting in 2002, he spent two years back at the (by then) University of Theatre and Film Arts working on his DLA before joining Müpa Budapest in 2005 as an artistic advisor responsible for putting together the institution's opera programmes. Following a stint at the Novus School of Art from 2006 to 2007, he has been teaching at the Werk Academy since 2008. He has been the CEO of Müpa Budapest since 17 March 2011, and on 15 August 2013 was appointed chairman of the body that runs both the Budapest Spring Festival and the CAFe Budapest Contemporary Arts Festival.
Filmography
1986 Fradika (documentary film about Ferencváros Football Club)
1987 Nem[Humdrum] (short film drama)
1987 Hagyományainkból [From Our Traditions] (dance film with the Kodály Dance Ensemble)
1988 A másik szoba[The Other Room] (television drama)
1989 Az új generáció választása[The Choice of the New Generation]
1991 What about H? (short Danish-Hungarian film drama)
1991–1993 Novomoda (fashion programme series broadcast on Hungarian television)
1993 Elindultam szép hazámból[I Left My Beautiful Homeland] (film portrait of opera singer Ilona Tokody)
1994 Kötéltáncos a szocializmusban [Walking the Tightrope in the Era of Socialism](film portrait of Tibor Liska)
1995 Szól a világ [The Sound of the World] (dance film of Béla Bartók's Romanian Folk Dances)
2000 Film on Hungary at Hungary's pavilion at the Hannover World's Fair
2003 Bánk bán (film drama)
2005 Bartók 2005 (documentary film on Béla Bartók)
2006 Orgona Ünnep - Párizs (documentary film on the Paris organ festival)
2006-2007 Szalon [Salon] (cultural fashion series broadcast on Duna Television)
2007 Mester és a tanítványok [The Master and his Apprentices] (six-part documentary film series on camera operator György Illés and his students)
2008 Mert én itt születtem [Because I Was Born Here] (documentary film)
2008 Kézjegy [Hallmark] (film portrait of composer László Dubrovay)
2010 Image film for the Hungarian pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo
2013 Munkácsy (two-part documentary film about Mihály Munkácsy)
1987-2010 More than 600 film trailers
1987-2010 28 music video clips
Festivals
His creative works have been screened and performed at events in the following cities and towns: Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Palm Springs, Portland, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. (USA); Palić (Serbia); Jerusalem (Israel); Singapore; Łódź (Poland); Calcutta, Mumbai, Madras, Pune, Trivandrum (India); Istanbul (Turkey); Dhaka (Bangladesh); Barcelona (Spain); Lima (Peru); Tokyo (Japan)
Theatrical work
1999 Mozart: Così fan tutte (Budapest Castle District Hilton Hotel, Dominican Court)
2000 Haydn: L’infedeltá delusa (Infidelity Outwitted) (Hungarian State Opera)
2001 Levente Gyöngyösi: The Stork Caliph (Millenáris Theatre)
2001 Pinsuti: Mattea Corvino (Millenáris Theatre)
2001 Europe Opera Gala (Hungarian State Opera)
2002 Ferenc Erkel: Bánk Bán (Hungarian State Opera)
2002 New Year's Opera Gala with Jose Cura (Hungarian State Opera)
2003 Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Hungarian State Opera)
2005 Monteverdi: L’Orfeo (Müpa Budapest, inaugural performance of the Festival Theatre)
2005 Charpentier: Acteon
2005 Purcell: Dido and Aeneas (Müpa Budapest, Festival Theatre)
2006 Mozart: The Magic Flute (Müpa Budapest, Béla Bartók National Concert Hall)
2006 Verdi: La traviata (Müpa Budapest, Béla Bartók National Concert Hall)
2007 Verdi: Il trovatore (Müpa Budapest, Béla Bartók National Concert Hall)
2007 Rameau: Pygmalion (Miskolc International Opera Festival)
2007 Verdi: La Forza di Destino (Müpa Budapest, Béla Bartók National Concert Hall)
2008 Puccini: Madama Butterfly (Müpa Budapest, Béla Bartók National Concert Hall)
2008 Mascagni: Cavelleria Rusticana, Leoncavallo: Pagliacci (National Theatre of Győr)
2008 Puccini: La bohème (Müpa Budapest, Béla Bartók National Concert Hall)
2008 Puccini: La fanciulla del West (Müpa Budapest, Béla Bartók National Concert Hall)
2008 The Three Tenors – Opera Gala (Miskolc International Opera Festival)
2009 Andrea Rost – Opera Gala (Müpa Budapest, Béla Bartók National Concert Hall)
2009 Purcell: The Faerie Queene (Müpa Budapest, Béla Bartók National Concert Hall)
2009 Ferenc Erkel: László Hunyadi (National Theatre of Győr)
2010 Marlowe: Dr. Faustus (Budapest Chamber Tivoli Theatre)
2010 Donizetti: L'elisir d'amore (Müpa Budapest, Béla Bartók National Concert Hall)
2011 Mozart: The Magic Flute (Iseum Open-Air Festival, Szombathely)
2012 Bizet: Carmen (National Theatre of Győr)
2012 Handel: Hercules (Müpa Budapest, Béla Bartók National Concert Hall)
2012 Mozart: Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Royal Opera House, Muscat)
2012 Donizetti: Don Pasquale (Veszprém Festival)
2012 Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro (Iseum Open-Air Festival, Szombathely)
2012 Ramón Vargas Opera Gala (Müpa Budapest, Béla Bartók National Concert Hall)
2012 Tchaikovsky: Onegin (Müpa Budapest, Béla Bartók National Concert Hall)
2013 Ibn Battuta, the Prince of Travellers (Bahrain National Theatre, Manama)
2013 Verdi: Attila (Shanghai Grand Theatre, Shanghai; Müpa Budapest, Béla Bartók National Concert Hall)
2013 Donizetti: Don Pasquale (Opera on Wheels) (Hungarian State Opera)
2014 Verdi: La traviata (Iseum Open-Air Festival)
2014 Handel: Alexander's Feast (Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, Vilnius; Müpa Budapest, Béla Bartók National Concert Hall)
2015 Károly Goldmark: The Queen of Sheba (Margaret Island Open-Air Theatre, Hungarian State Opera)
Work as an opera director
As a director of opera, Káel has worked with such artists as José Cura, Leo Nucci, Éva Marton, Ruggerio Raimondi, Renato Bruson, Erika Miklósa, Andrea Rost, Roberto Scandiuzzi, Joseph Calleja, Giuseppe Sabbatini, Ildiko Komlósi, Michaela Kaune, Elena Mosuc, Roberto Saccà, Marcello Giordani, Kurt Rydl, Ramón Vargas, Yevgeny Nesterenko, Pier Giorgio Morandi, Deborah Voigt, Christoph Eschenbach, Ferruccio Furlanetto. He has staged several pre-classical operas in productions by the Purcell Chorus and Orfeo Orchestra conducted by György Vashegyi, including Monteverdi's L’Orfeo, the inaugural performance at Müpa Budapest's Festival Theatre.
