Mariinsky Orchestra rendition startlingly dark

It is fitting that, on the eve of Chapel Hill’s autumnal extravaganza, the Mariinsky Orchestra visited Memorial Hall to deliver one of its own.

On its second night in town, the St. Petersburg, Russia-based ensemble performed Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring,” the center of Carolina Performing Arts’ year-long centennial celebration, “The Rite of Spring at 100.”

Just this weekend, the University hosted a conference that brought scholars on the work from around the world to campus, giving an academic focus to Stravinsky’s revolutionary composition.

The orchestra’s Tuesday show was CPA’s first live performance of the score of the work. Its choreography, steeped in pagan themes, notoriously caused the work’s first ever audience to riot.

Hours before Halloween, the holiday that most closely matches Stravinsky’s focus, the Mariinsky Orchestra, conducted by the commanding Valery Gergiev, provided a timely program for the packed crowd.

Its take on “The Rite of Spring” was satisfying, lending effective emphasis to the rhythmic innovations, percussive mastery and the technically amazing trombone glissandos.

The characteristic fits and tears proved enough to rattle some 21st century cages.

But at points the convention-busting antics of Stravinsky seemed, well, conventional. Of course, an interpretation that measures up to the genius of its composer might be too much to expect from any orchestra.

“The Rite of Spring,” though it drew a standing ovation, wasn’t the most affecting item on the program.

The orchestra led off with Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 6, a work that also explores the theme of spring. The Russian composer’s name has become synonymous with subversion, and the symphony’s hulking first section set an uncertain tone.

Its following two movements — both faster and flightier — gave the orchestra a chance to show off its versatility.

But the heart of the show was what immediately followed intermission — the U.S. premiere of Rodion Shchedrin’s “Cleopatra and the Snake.” Featuring soprano Ekaterina Goncharova, the work is an interpretation of the final scene of Shakespeare’s “Antony and Cleopatra,” in which the Egyptian queen kills herself by snakebite.

The performance of Goncharova, clad in a long green dress, was arresting. And although the dialogue was sung in Russian, the work’s themes — the darker shades of power and youth — were made plain.

On the whole, for a performance steeped in youth and spring, Tuesday night was startlingly dark.

And for a campus that has seen two of its members’ lives claimed under mysterious circumstances in less than two months, this revelation is altogether appropriate.

While the program’s explicit novelty may have been the focus, its scarier side was lost on no one.

Contact the desk editor at arts@dailytarheel.com.