Boris Gnatovich Afanasyev (born 13 January 1920, Mstislavl, Mogilev Oblast, BSSR - 1992) was a Belarusian and Ukrainian conductor. People's Artist of the RSFSR (1971).
Biography.
Boris Afanasyev studied at the Minsk Music College. He graduated from the Belarusian State Conservatory as a solo violinist (1947). He began his career as a concertmaster of the orchestra of the Belarusian Drama Theatre, where, with a short break, he worked from 1934 to 1943. After being evacuated to Tomsk, he organised an orchestra and a string quartet and travelled to the front with a concert brigade. In autumn 1943, he organised the Belarusian State Quartet, with which he performed in the liberated cities of Belarus. In 1944, he took part in the organisation of the BSSR Symphony Orchestra, and until 1950 was its concertmaster (along with leading the quartet). In 1950-1953 he was the artistic director of the Belarusian State Philharmonic. In 1953-1960 he was the conductor of the Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra. He taught at the Belarusian Conservatoire.
Since 1960 he has been a conductor of the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre, and in 1962-1976 he was its chief conductor. He also conducted symphony concerts of the Perm Philharmonic. He moved to Ukraine and headed the Odesa Opera and Ballet Theatre. The stage version of the opera-ballet Viy by V. Gubarenko, to the creation of which Boris Afanasiev made a significant contribution, was nominated for the USSR State Prize. After that, he was the chief conductor of the Dnipro Opera and Ballet Theatre.
His productions include
"The Fiery Years
"Viy"
"Revived May
"Tenderness
"The Maid of Orleans"
"The Custodian"
"The Sorceress by Tchaikovsky
"Lohengrin" by Wagner
"Masquerade Ball" by Verdi
"Turandot by Puccini
"Semyon Kotko" by Prokofiev
"Masquerade" by D. Tolstoy
"Yukki" ("Lantern Festival") by Spadavecchia.
