Cornelius Obonya as Tevje in Fiddler on the Roof

Actor Cornelius Obonya takes on the role of the milkman Tevje in the current series of Fiddler on the Roof, making his Volksoper debut. The actor is known as a long-time performer of Jedermann at the Salzburg Festival.

Cornelius Obonya was born in Vienna. After dropping out of his acting studies at the Max Reinhardt Seminar, the cabaret artist Gerhard Bronner, the then Volkstheater director Emmy Werner and director Andrea Breth had a particular influence on the actor's early career. Important engagements have taken him to the Schaubühne Berlin, the Burgtheater Vienna and the Salzburg Festival, where he played Jedermann from 2013 to 2016.

The versatile actor celebrated great success in 2010/11 with his solo evening Cordoba - Das Rückspiel by Florian Scheuba and Rubert Hennig at the Rabenhof Theater in Vienna. Cornelius Obonya is also known to a wide audience from numerous German and Austrian film and television productions. The actor has also made a name for himself as a commentator for documentaries and as an interpreter of audio books.

Cornelius Obonya has received numerous awards, including the Ferdinand-Raimund-Ring, the German Audiobook Prize 2024, the Salzburger Stier 2010 and was Austrian Radio's Actor of the Year (Ö1).

Fiddler on the Roof is Obonya's second foray into musicals: in 2008/09 he played Max Bialystock in Mel Brooks' Broadway musical The Producers, which was shown at the Ronacher in Vienna and the Admiralspalast in Berlin.

“You don't sing Tevje every day and after The Producers it's a pleasure to travel to a new, different Jewish world again after 14 years,” says Obonya about his upcoming role debut.

Fiddler on the Roof tells the moving story of a Jewish community in early 20th century Russia and focuses on the struggle for tradition and identity: the milkman Tevje, his wife Golde and their five daughters live in the Jewish shtetl of Anatevka. What begins as a fairy tale turns out to be a highly realistic story: the daughters' marriage plans put the father's sense of tradition to the test - and when a pogrom descends on Anatevka, the family is scattered.