Religion: Ballet in San Domenico’s

In the sacristy of Perugia’s 4th century church of San Domenico last week, portraits of four Popes looked down on theatrical make-up men applying wigs and beards. Outside, photographers crowded into the pulpit. On a wooden stage below them, flanked by a large orchestra and chorus, a troupe of 50 dancers went through the first performance of Leonide Massine’s Laudes Evangelii, a ballet “mystery play” depicting the story of Christ.

San Domenico had not been so closely involved in a theatrical production since medieval days. Never — so far as Vatican authorities could remember — had any Roman Catholic church been used for a ballet performance. The idea came last spring to Francesco Siciliani, art director of the Florence Community Theater. He broached it to Massine (who is Russian Orthodox), and the choreographer went to work. Siciliani got ecclesiastical permission from the Dominicans of San Domenico and from the Archbishop of Perugia.

When Massine’s company first got to Perugia, a Rome newspaper ran a picture of French Ballerina Geneviève Lespagnol going through her rehearsal paces in ballet tights. Since she plays the Virgin Mary, the picture created quite a stir. A deputation of five Dominicans came around to keep an eye on rehearsals, but the company’s directors managed to reassure them.

Before rehearsals were over, the monks had begun serving coffee and wine to the artists and technicians. Stagehands set up their scaffolding in the nave, and regular church services were held in a side chapel.

The finished production was almost universally praised. The dancers glided gracefully through scenes representing the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Way of the Cross, the Resurrection, like figures in a 12th century painting brought to life.

Composer Valentino Bucchi’s measured music was a careful reflection of medieval modes. Massine, reported Rome’s // Messaggero, has “knelt to the spirituality of his subject.” The local clergy was, on the whole, fascinated. The next day Monsignor Luigi Piastrelli commended the perform ance from his pulpit.

The show got only one bad notice —but that one might prove fatal. The Vatican had not been officially informed of Perugia’s plans, but it spoke up quickly when it read the notices. “Churches,” announced a Vatican spokesman, “are meant to be places of worship in the most absolute sense of the word . . . For the time being, the Archbishop of Perugia will be requested to handle the matter in such a way that it will not repeat itself.”