100th anniversary of Nikolai Annenkov
Tonight at the Maly Theater they will honor People's Artist of the Soviet Union Nikolai Annenkov. He is turning one hundred years old. But the oldest Russian artist is not just a long-liver. To the generosity and favor of heaven, which singled out Annenkov from the galaxy of his great peers and gave him an acting biography unique in length, the elder responds with loyalty to his academic stage and his craft. Anyone who has heard the artist’s unique timbre and density of voice at least once will never forget it. This voice seems designed to speak over time, communicate directly with theatrical shadows and turn to eternity with spells. The venerable old man of Maly was left by fate itself to embody the inaccessibility of the fortress on Theater Square. Nikolai Annenkov's current repertoire includes two roles, both classic: Firs in Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard and Lup-Kleshnin in Alexei Tolstoy's Tsar Boris. Scenes from "Tsar Boris" will be played today in the first part of the anniversary evening. Then the artist will be congratulated by his colleagues and students, of whom there are many: for many years Annenkov has been the artistic director of the Shchepkinsky School at the Maly Theater.

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 171 dated 09.21.1999, p. 9