London Symphony Orchestra principal conductor Valery Gergiev and the famed Mariinsky Orchestra and Opera premiered at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Friday evening with its rendition of Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin."Based on the Russian classic novel by Alexander Pushkin, the opera follows the urbane, worldly gentleman Eugene Onegin, who comes to regret his coarse rejection of the love-struck country girl Tatyana and his careless incitement of a lethal duel with his best friend Lensky.
The one-night performance featured the baritone Alexey Markov as Onegin, the soprano Irina Mataeva as Tatyana, the tenor Sergey Semishkur as Lensky and the mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Semenchuk as Olga.
The Washington Post's Anne Midgette praised the evening and the raw emotion that seemed to permeate the opera house.
"[The performance] was sustained by vivid, almost crazy energy emanating from Gergiev and the orchestra," Midgette wrote Monday. 'Onegin' is easy to make pretty; here it came across as visceral as heart's blood."
The novel - one of the most revered pieces in Russian literature - has been adapted for the stage, opera, ballet, and film and translated into five languages.
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