Gay Rights Protests Follow Gergiev to Carnegie Hall

Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times Gay rights advocates protested against a performance of the Mariinsky Orchestra led by Valery Gergiev outside Carnegie Hall on Thursday night.

The furor in the West over Russia's new law placing restrictions on the discussion of homosexuality continues to dog the conductor Valery Gergiev, who is one of Russia's most important cultural exports these days. Mr. Gergiev, a prominent supporter of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who signed the law, drew protests Thursday night at Carnegie Hall, just as he did last month at the opening night of the Metropolitan Opera.

Shortly after Mr. Gergiev walked onto the stage at Carnegie Hall to begin leading the celebrated Mariinsky Orchestra in a program of three Stravinsky ballets, the concert was briefly delayed by several members of Queer Nation, a protest group that has been vocally pushing for gay rights in Russia.

“Gergiev, your silence is killing Russian gays!” several protesters shouted, as Mr. Gergiev, in tails, kept his back to the audience. Some members of the audience booed the protesters; others applauded. One woman yelled, “This is an artistic event!”

The protesters were removed from the auditorium, and the concert proceeded.

The protesters were denouncing a law, signed by Mr. Putin in June, that bans “propaganda on nontraditional relationships.” A small but vocal group also gathered outside Carnegie Hall before the concert. Some yelled, “Hey hey, ho ho, Gergiev has got to go!” It was the same stretch of sidewalk on West 57th Street that members of the stagehands' union picketed on last week during a strike that forced Carnegie to cancel its opening night gala. (The strike was settled last week.)

Both of the Gergiev performances delayed by protests had an added resonance for gay rights supporters. The Met opened its season with “Eugene Onegin” by Tchaikovsky, whom Peter Gelb, the Met's general manager, described as “Russia's great gay composer.” And the Carnegie Hall concert featured three Stravinsky ballets - “The Firebird,” “Pétrouchka,” and “The Rite of Spring” - that were commissioned by the great impresario Sergei Diaghilev, who was also gay, for his storied dance troupe, the Ballets Russes.

Mr. Gergiev supported Mr. Putin's election, and was honored by Mr. Putin last spring with a revived Soviet-era title, Hero of Labor, around the time he opened a new $700 million theater, the Mariinsky II. He has declined to speak to The New York Times, but he told RIA Novosti, the Russian news agency, this week that he did not discriminate at the Mariinsky Theater, where he is the artistic and general director.

“But once you start to talk like this, you start to sound like someone who has to apologize,'' he was quoted as saying. “We have nothing to apologize for.”

R. Douglas Sheldon, Mr. Gergiev's manager at Columbia Artists Management, did not return calls to his office or cellphone, or an e-mail seeking clarification of Mr. Gergiev's position.

John Weir, one of the protesters, released a statement afterwards saying: “”Valery Gergiev will not be able to perform without being called out for his vocal support of Russia's anti-gay president. Gergiev's silence about Putin's anti-gay laws is killing lesbian and gay Russians. We're here to break that silence.”

It was hardly the first time a performance featuring Stravinsky's “Rite of Spring” met with a noisy outburst. A century ago, when the work had its premiere at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, the music created such an uproar that it was barely audible, and the pandemonium that erupted in the theater was later described as a riot.

On Thursday night, the protesters made their mark before a note was played, and, after they had their say, they left the audience to enjoy the music, which no longer sparks protests on its own.