Only a voice

Before I began to recognize his face, I remembered his voice. The soft, clear, bright, cheerful voice of Oleg Anofriev is the voice of my childhood. The voice that Trubadur and Bremen musicians sing, the king and his guard in the famous musical Gennady Gladkov - I, like millions of Soviet children, remember them according to the cartoon and (or) by the “melodievsky” vinyl record. By the way, Oleg Anofriev, who was friends with Gladkov and Entin, was ready to sing in the Bremen musicians and the princess’s party, but Elmira Zhezdev was already approved for this role. And there was such a record “The Tale of the Priest and the employee of his Balde” - no less cheerful, perky and musical, where he performed all 18 roles - from hitting to hell, devils and the test. But most people who grew up on the territory of the ex-SSR, perhaps, even do not even know that Oleg Anofriev’s velor voice put them to bed on the final credits of the program “Good night, kids” and do not imagine what the one who told them “Bay-by” in the pink time of their life looked.

Oleg Anofriev was not too lucky with recognizability - his voice was much more famous than his face. A born actor, a graduate of the Moscow Art Theater School, directed at its end, like Oleg Efremov, to the Central Children's Theater to Anatoly Efros, and then the past theater named after Mayakovsky and Theater. Mossovet, played more than 60 roles in the cinema since the mid-50s. But not a single main one. Most likely, his stigma was precisely the appearance: Olezhka from our yard - always young, or “Babypse”, as they say now, was not suitable for the heroes of Soviet cinema. He approached only the secondary characteristic roles - such as the old Peti Zubov in a psychedelic "fairy tale of lost time." Where Vasily Lanova played Captain Gray, Oleg Anofriev was the sailor of his sailboat. Almost the only important movie in his acting biography - and therefore his favorite - was Captain Vadim Lyalin from the film adaptation of Leonid Zorin's play “Friends and Years” . In this key thaw, Oleg Anofriev played a repressed one, but again, he was seen by fewer people than he deserves. But everyone remembers the waltz that sounded there, fulfilled - "It was recently, it was a long time ago." He is tightly inscribed in the collective memory and cultural code of those born in the USSR.

The main roles of Oleg Anofriev were the songs of his lively: in “Bremen musicians”, “Like a lion cub and a tortoise, they sang a song”, “In the port” and dozens of films and cartoons, and first of all, in “Sannikov’s earth”, his business card became “there is only a moment ...” with his characteristic humor wished to see his tombstones. These songs will still survive the cinema, as it was invented in the 20th century - they are listened to and sing them on the current children. And there were also popat hits, which he recorded in the 60s: then the demanded theater and film actor Oleg Anofriev was at the peak of fame and gave four concerts a day, forgetting what numbers he already rejoiced. When you listen to these songs now, the illustrated encyclopedia of a thaw life is carried before your eyes, as in the books of Leonid Parfyonov: fashion stores, shoes, the new “victory”, interplanetary orbits and rockets, the ubiquitous terrikon-and a fashionable dance, restless students who go to the ribs, and the ribs in the ovlies T.D. And Oleg Anofriev’s voice-a clear, bright and cheerful, devoid of Soviet statue-gives these pictures a warm glow of a long-gown life, and three minutes while the song lasts, you believe that the 60s were really the happiest time in the life of our country.

Oleg Anofriev sings: adults and children's songs of the 60s

Oleg Anofriev loved to say that the universities passed did not teach him anything: "I, having stolen a beer, slept at almost all lectures of the Moscow Art Theater Studio, so I have, exclusively from nature."

Oleg Anofriev sang also on the internal compass - for five and eighteen characters. He did not have a musical education, which did not prevent him from mastering the musical notation and the basics of composer science and start writing himself. His only full-length plate released on the "melody" in 1981 was called "Oleg Anofriev sings his songs." Of course, she came out without his portrait on the cover. The first side of the album ended in the lyrical ode of Russia "What a song without a button accordion." According to the actor who adored the tales and skillfully told them, he suggested that Lyudmila Zykina perform her, but she did not appreciate and did not pay attention, and the song became popular.

Oleg Anofriev wrote and just poems, as well as epigrams and stories. I released two books. One of his last poems was “I want to die in the spring,” but there is no need to look for gloomy predictions in this text. “The trick is what is the conclusion-I wrote it at the end of spring,” explained the 87-year-old artist . - If suddenly the time comes to die earlier, then you guys, reach me to the new spring. I reserved myself another summer. Get me to spring. It is in this line that is my vitality, and not that I sing about death. If you can’t understand such intricacies, then it’s better not to read my poems. ”

And it’s better not to listen to the songs.