a film by Vasily Livanov
Speaking of 50th anniversaries: here’s another one for you. For me too.
Just like it was in the case of its prequel, I first heard On the Trail of the Bremen Town Musicians on the vinyl. Once again, it was a gift from my cousin who came to visit us one weekend. I still remember the magical moment when he put the disc on a turntable and we heard the words, read by Oleg Tabakov:
Давным-давно на белом свете жили не только глупые короли и прекрасные принцессы, не только страшные лесные разбойники и весёлые бродячие артисты, но и гениальные сыщики.
Long, long ago, there lived not only silly kings and beautiful princesses, not only scary forest robbers and merry wandering actors, but also genius detectives.
The musical turned out to be even bigger box of surprises than its predecessor. I certainly did not expect Muslim Magomayev — an establishment singer à la Iosif Kobzon and Lev Leshchenko — to be there. And there he was, voicing not only Troubadour, who, indeed, sounds like the “official” Magomayev, but also his antagonists: Genius Detective (Гениальный Сыщик), with his catchphrase “Oh, yes!”, and Atamansha (Атаманша), the leader of Scary Forest Robbers.
My mum used to quote Genius Detective («А нюх как у собаки, а глаз как у орла»), Silly King («Такая, сякая, сбежала из дворца») and Beautiful Princess («Ни-че-го я не хо-чу»). The two songs that the Bremen Town Musicians perform when posing as “foreign” (as opposed to their native Bremenland) rockers were a staple of my brother’s band repertoire in the early 1980s. Many years later, Yuri would call «сыщик» any vintage convertible reminiscent of the car that Genius Detective drives in the film.
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