Pyotr Olenin was an opera singer (baritone), opera director, and a follower of Konstantin Stanislavsky. Born in 1871 in the Ryazan Governorate, he studied vocal arts concurrently with his medical studies at Moscow University, and in 1895 further honed his skills in Italy. In 1898, Pyotr Olenin successfully performed the role of Onegin at Savva Mamontov's Moscow Private Russian Opera. He subsequently became a soloist at the Bolshoi Theatre and the Zimin Opera in Moscow, where he served as chief director from 1907 to 1915. The artist's repertoire featured performances in operas such as "Pagliacci", "Prince Igor", "Boris Godunov", "The Queen of Spades", and "Carmen". As a director, Pyotr Olenin staged performances such as "The Maid of Orleans", "The Golden Cockerel", "Khovanshchina", and "The Snow Maiden". In 1917, he founded the "Altar" ("Little Opera") theatre in Moscow, and from 1918 he worked as a director at the Mariinsky Theatre in Petrograd. The online collection of the Bakhrushin Theatre Museum features sketches by Ivan Bilibin and Fyodor Fedorovsky for perfprmances directed by Pyotr Olenin at the Zimin Opera, as well as photographs of the artist in various roles and archival documents.