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# The Singing Actor
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/poiushchii-akter/
- Published: 2025-07-21T14:06:10.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:29:23.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: In the Press, Interviews, Cinema, People, Pop Culture

**The Singing Actor**. **Oleg Andreyevich Anofriyev was an artist whose work is familiar to every one of us.**

A graduate of the Moscow Art Theatre School-Studio, he worked at the Mayakovsky Theatre and the Mossovet Theatre and appeared in a great many films, though seldom in leading roles. But for most people Anofriyev remained above all the **voice** of childhood.

Anofriyev wrote more than 50 songs, romances and melodies, many of which were heard on radio, television and in the cinema. He also performed upwards of 200 songs by other authors. His voice sounds in «The Bremen Town Musicians», in the lullaby «The Tired Toys Are Sleeping», in the song «There Is Only a Moment» from the film «Sannikov Land», in the song «Keep Your Chin Up!» from «Forward, Gardes-Marines!», and in many others.

On the 95th anniversary of Oleg Anofriyev's birth, the newspaper «Kultura» is publishing excerpts from an [interview](https://portal-kultura.ru/articles/data/372236-mne-dan-razum-pozvolyayushchiy-byt-kak-samokritichnym-tak-i-samovlyublennym-k-yubileyu-olega-anofrie/?ref=theparnassian.com) recorded with him at the end of 2014\. Here are some passages from that conversation:

**On «The Bremen Town Musicians»**  
We did not suppose it would turn into a super-hit, all the more so as we created it virtually in a single night. We came to the studio at eleven in the evening and left at seven in the morning. The reason was that finding the time seemed a well-nigh impossible task: the Melodiya recording studio was constantly occupied, now by the classical performers, now by the variety artists, now by somebody else. But, as time has shown, the game was worth the candle: a masterpiece came out, which to this day leaves hardly anyone indifferent...

**On song in modern cinema**  
To talk about "why then, yes, and today, no" is, in my view, pointless. One need only look at the names: Ostrovsky, Frenkel, Babajanian, Fradkin, Feltsman. Can you name today's creators who ought to be placed in the same row with these great composers?

**On boors, hooligans and art**  
Merezhkovsky has a book called «The Coming Boor». Well, this very boor arrived long ago: he has taken his niche and multiplied. But the most repulsive thing is that this boor is tenacious and pushy. He offers and promotes his pseudo-creativity, which spreads with incredible speed... The hooligans have taken up the directorial watch. People have come whose worldview comes down to eroticism and other such rubbish. Though I treat Stanislavsky's teaching with a certain degree of irony, I still consider that on one point he was certainly right: he categorically forbade actors to eat, drink and the like on stage. Because otherwise no art will come of it. Whereas now on screen and on stage they invariably guzzle, booze, swear and screw.

**On parting with the theatre**  
I came to the conclusion that it is a false community. Inconsistent, unstable and dishonest: to stay there while holding a firm human position seemed impossible. Somewhere you had to lie, bow to somebody, or, conversely, humiliate somebody, bring them to their knees. That seemed alien to me. At the same time I have many friends from the theatrical world, so I do not wish to offend anyone. I simply, evidently, fell out of love with the actor's profession, grew tired of being counted a stage personality, which, frankly speaking, I never was.

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_17297@21-07-2025_17-06-10.jpg)