The sense of smell has long been used in religion to purify a space and enhance spirituality. Now the Baroque orchestra La Nuova Musica is to perfume its next concert venue in London, St John’s Smith Square on Monday, to add an extra sensory dimension to its performance of Handel’s secular opera, Acis and Galatea. The fragrances for this experimental venture are provided by perfumer Sarah McCartney, who contends that scenting a room where people congregate was normal in Handel’s time. “Lavender and rosemary were strewn on the floor of a church,” she says. “People carried posies, and the rich wore clothes smothered in perfume because they couldn’t wash them.”In church, fragrances include the use of incense, which has the effect not only of er