A.N. Tolstoy
Staging and poems by S. Bogomazov
Music by V. Shirinsky
All roles are performed by N. Litvinov
Orchestra conducted by B. Sherman
Directed by R. Ioffe
Recordedin1949
The famous fairy tale adapted for the radio “The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Buratino” by Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoybelongs to those unforgettable works of art, which are being kept in our minds for a lifetime. “He was a log, became a boy and lovely lad! That is not bad. Of course, it is not bad!” A cheerful little wooden man sang this funny, joyful and ringing song for the first time many years ago.It is likely thatyour mom and dad, and maybe even your grandparents,were among the first listeners of this radio fairy tale. Justtrytoremember how more than once some of grown-ups, being in a good mood, were humming to themselves this amusing and touching Buratino’s song, the song about the happiness of living in a huge, every second changing world of people and animals, things and toys. But when we want to tease some stingy and meanswindlers we involuntarily bring back to memorycunning Alice the Fox and silly crook Basilio the Cat with their painted words and low tricks.We often remembera sad puppet with a sensitive human heart Pierrot – a true friend of Buratino, and a kind organ-grinder Papa Carlo, wise old Tortilla the Turtle, who knows a great secret of the Golden Key and the one hundred year oldSpeaking Cricket, living behind the drawn fireplace in a dark closet of Papa Carlo – all of them and lots of other characters of the wonderful fairy tale by Aleksey Tolstoy… Theyareso different! Each of them has their own character, they look differently, speak differently, as well as laugh, get angry and cry… Buton this recording all of them were played by only one person! Yes, itseems impossible, butitistrue. All the parts without exception – big and small, parts of people, animals, beasts, puppets and finally a part of the narrator were created by an amazing talent of one person. We excitedly listen to this soft, crafty, occasionally sad, sometimesmocking, very kind, but at timesdreadful voice. This is the voice of Nikolay Vladimiriovich Litvinov – an artist who had an unusual and priceless gift to give people joy, totally incomparable happiness of true, big art. Whoever he is, whoever he plays, we always recognize this marvelousmaster, not only by a peculiar tone of his voice, but also by its mysterious, poetic fairytaleness that enslaves and fascinates us. The most different heroes of a great number of works were brought to life by the power of the artist’s skill: the famous quarrellers Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich from the tale by Gogol and thousand year old Hottabych the Genie from a radio adaptation of the book by Lagin, and the characters of the fairy tale by Aleksey Tolstoy were among them… And it seems that we see that formidable “doctor of puppet science” Karabas Barabas with his long bushy beard, frowned eyebrows and evil eyes. And extremely sad, dusted with the white flour face of Pierrot, his dangled arms and tearful eyes. And various, funny each in its own way faces of farcical barkers, speaking at the top of their voices the words of praise to the puppet theater: “Here, come to us!”. Then Litvinov sings in a chorus, and later on in a duo with himself a wonderful song of Buratino and Pierrot about friendship: “The door of happiness will be opened with this Golden Key!” How come that one person playsall the parts? Can you guess who or maybe what has helped the artist? You know that one person no matter how many natural gifts and all kinds of talents he has hardly could, for instance, carry on a conversation of interrupting one another Buratino and a boastful, mocking boy, who exchanged an A-B-C book with a little wooden man for four ringing coins; orintheveryendoftheadaptation the artist sings in a trio: Papa Carlo, Buratino and Pierrot, and none of the voices sounds alike and moreover some of the singers drag a bit behind the others… Sound recording technique helped the creators of the radio show: director Rosa Ioffe, performer of all the parts Nikolay Litvinov, composer Vasily Shirinsky. Certainly, it was not the main reason that determined a long-term and beautiful life of this adaptation, but skills, talent and amazing imagination of its creators, truly loving the wonderful and kind fairy tale ofAleksey Tolstoy and giving their passion to many millions of listeners.
And now, before your recording starts speaking, singing and laughing with all the voices, I want you, a today’s listener of this classical fairy tale, to know what the author of “The Golden Key” told his readers: “When I was a little kid – long, long time ago, - I had read one book, its name was “Pinocchio or The Adventures of a wooden puppet” (in Italian “a wooden puppet” means “buratino”). I often used to tell my friends, boys and girls, about entertaining adventures of Buratino. But as I lost the book, my stories were different every time I was telling them, I was imagining such adventures, which were not in the book at all. But now, after so many years, I remembered my old friend Buratino and made up my mind to tell you, boys and girls, a great story about this little wooden man.”
