moni ovadia - Di Goldene Medine

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Di Goldene Medine - Author's notes

Moni Ovadia and Carlo Boccadoro began their musical partnership with a recital named "Nigun" (interior melody) which then became a CD recording. Their artistic association has developed along various lines which have led Moni Ovadia to collaborate with the group "Sentieri Selvaggi" directed by Boccadoro, and have resulted in Boccadoro writing original compositions and arrangements for Moni Ovadia's shows.

An important moment in their collaboration is Boccadoro's composition "Cantata su melodie yiddish" for narrator, singer and symphonic orchestra, which was commisioned by the orchestra of the "Pomeriggi Musicali" and premiered at the Sala Verdi of the Milan Conservatory, conducted by Boccadoro himself and with the interpretation of Moni Ovadia.

After several different experiences, Boccadoro e Ovadia decided to return to the duo format, in order to explore the development of the Yiddish melody and the Jewish musical humus of Eastern Europe in its passage from the shtetl ( the small Jewish towns in central and Eastern Europe which were the heart of Yiddishkeit) to America. Jewish emigration towards the USA was a real epic of the people, caused by hunger and persecution.

Di Goldene Medine (the land of gold, the name the Eastern Jews gave the United States) is an initial, rhapsodic look at the many-sided encounter of Yiddish musicality and poetics with the new continent.

This encounter will give birth to one of the most surprising cultural flowerings of all time. Through songs, music and words, the audience is led from the small homeland of exile, to the uprooting and a new exile, and finally, to a stable but contradictory sense of belonging in America.