Attending an emotional event:
For over a hundred years, the city of Valmontone has every year been waiting for an important event that is very popular with the public: that of the Holy Performance that takes place the week before Easter.
Its origins date back to 1903 when Father Angelo Fortuna, the parish priest of the parish of Santo Stefano, set up the first "Procession of the Death of Christ". The "Procession" paraded through the streets of the village and the whole community took part with feeling. For almost fifty years the procession was a staple of the religious life of Valmontone and then it evolved. It turned into a Holy Performance in 1950 when a group of friends, after seeing the manifestation of Sezze Romano, wanted to try to make one in their own town.
In 1950 the first committee was formed, composed of about 70-80 people to organize this event. After long months of testing at Palazzo Doria, where for years during WW2 the entire population of Valmontone had taken refuge to escape the bombing, on Good Friday there was the first performance that immediately received considerable success, despite some "nostalgic" skepticism for the Procession.
The success of this new "performance" meant that the following year the "Week INCOM" arrived in Valmontone, the newsreel that in those years took the place of the not yet born TV, and a troupe from Twenty Century Fox, that thanks to their shoot of the event it highlighted the spirit with which the Valmontonesi participate in this awaited event.
Over the years, the experience in organizing the event has led to a higher quality of the play, increasing also the number of people taking part in the performance. This allowed the number of stories and scenes represented to be increased.
The scenes of 'Cain and Abel', the 'Temptation in the desert', the 'Despair of Judas' have been added, while the mass scenes, like those of John the Baptist, become more spectacular and crowded with the public and the Praetorians. This is why every year there is a growing influx of tourists from neighboring towns and even from distant ones.
In 1987 the show changed once again and took place indoors to increase the excitement for the spectators. The script was revisited from the biblical point of view, and the attention was totally shifted to the New Testament and in particular to the Passion of Christ.
In September 1989, the Holy Performance of Good Friday arrived in Spain, thanks to the twinning of Valmontone with the city of Benifayó.
Then once again a change was made to increase the pathos of the event: since 1994 the setting for the performance became the appealing Historical Centre of Valmontone.
The background of the performance is that of Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, a building of the seventeenth century famous for its frescoed rooms, of which we recall in succession: the Rooms of Fire, Air, Water, and Earth. The stage is set up between the Palace and the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, one of the symbolic monuments of the Valmontone past, built in Baroque style by the architect Mattia De Rossi and dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin into heaven.
The most suggestive and engaging scene of the Holy Performance of Good Friday is undoubtedly that of the Crucifixion: the crucifixion was, at the time of the Roman Empire, a mode of carrying out the death penalty and in reality it was real torture. The penalty of the crucifixion was so atrocious and humiliating that it could not be performed by a Roman citizen. It was carried out by slaves and foreigners and was usually preceded by scourging, which made this rite even more excruciating for the condemned.
The spectacular nature of the performance is also given by the participation of people on horseback who every year surprise adults and children and increase for this occasion the sensation of performing a journey in time.
To participate as a performer at the event you must get in touch through the Facebook page dedicated to the Holy Performance and actively participate in the tests in the weeks before Easter. It's worth it!
SCENES PRESENTED:
PROLOGUE
JOHN THE BAPTIST
HEROD
SALOME'S DANCE
JESUS IN THE DESERT
THE SUMMONING OF THE APOSTLES
SERMON ON THE MOUNT
RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS
ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM
LAST SUPPER
IN THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE
JESUS IN FRONT OF CAIAPHAS
JESUS RESPONSES TO PILATE
FLAGELLATION
WAY OF THE CROSS
DESPAIR OF JUDAS
THE CRUCIFIXION
ENTOMBMENT
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