Town Musicians of Bremen

Gennady Gladkov (1935–2023) has composed the music for many cinema and TV films, cartoons and musicals, all of which have become incredibly popular, not least thanks to his music. They include the films Gentlemen of Fortune, The Twelve Chairs, The Dog in the Manger, An Ordinary Miracle and A Man from the Boulevard des Capucines and the cartoons Junior and Karlson, The Bluebird, How the Young Lion and the Turtle Sang a Song, The Blue Puppy and Thirty-Eight Parrots among others.

The cartoon The Bremen Town Musicians (1969) brought Gennady Gladkov fame throughout the Soviet Union. The musical fantasia based on the tales of the Brothers Grimm soon took on a life of its own on records, sales of which reached almost thirty million in the course of two years. Soon an eponymous musical was staged based on the cartoon, and The Bremen Town Musicians undertook a triumphant tour of theatres throughout Russia.

This year the adventures of the resourceful travelling performers headed by the Troubadour are to take place at the Mariinsky Theatre (production by Alexander Maskalin). Works by this director in the chamber Prokofiev Hall (The Brave Hare, An Opera about Porridge, a Cat and Milk and The Giant among others) have already proved popular with audiences.

There Is Nothing Better on Earth, They Say, We Byaki-Buki and Oh, the Guards Rise Early – these famous songs from The Bremen Town Musicians are to be performed by soloists of the Mariinsky Academy of Young Opera Singers and will probably be warmly met by both young audiences and their parents.

Olga Vokina