Moni Ovadia (1946)

He was born to a Jewish family in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, in 1946. At the end of 1947 he moved together with his family to Milan. After graduating in Political Science he began his artistic career as singer and musician in the group Almanacco Popolare.
In 1972 he set up and ran Gruppo Folk Internazionale which was dedicated to the study of the traditional music of various countries, particularly those of the Balkan region. His theatre career began in 1984 when he began to work together with numerous personalities from the stage. He created "Dalla sabbia dal tempo" (From the Sands of Time), which was performed at the Festival of Jewish Culture in 1987. It was on this occasion that for the first time Ovadia fused his acting and musical talent, opening the way to the idea of a "musical theatre", which is still today an outlet for his artistic expression.
In 1990 he set up the "TheaterOrchestra" and began working on a regular basis with the CRT Artificio in Milan, producing "Golem" together with Daniele Abbado. After its debut at the Petruzzelli in Bari, "Golem" was performed to popular acclaim in Milan, Rome, Berlin, Paris and New York. But it was with "Oylem Goylem", a musical theatre in the form of cabaret, that Ovadia became known to a wide audience. Together again with Mara Cantoni in January 1995 Ovadia appeared with Dybbuk, a show based on the Holocaust which was widely considered one of the most important events on the theatre calendar. In the same year he also appeared in a co-production with Milan's Piccolo Teatro, "Taibele e il suo demone" (Taibele and His Demon), together with Pamela Villoresi who also directed the show.