♦ The decor
Notre-Dame de Paris, wounded, is an immense building site populated with scaffolding which modifies the solemn splendor of the building and changes the singular acoustics of the immense stone vessel. A challenge for the performers of the concert who, for the first time since the fire of April 15, 2019, “Have found their home”, says Henri Chalet, director of the Maîtrise Notre-Dame.
→ LARGE FORMAT. Notre-Dame de Paris is preparing for the major restoration project
The five cameras and the crane installed by France Télévisions to immortalize this reunion “Had to deal with the lack of hindsight in the chapel where the singers were gathered, in order to be able to film them all together », Explains Frank David, program advisor for France 2 (at France Télévisions Studio). A system in place “Under very specific conditions: no more than 25 people present simultaneously, a rigorous protocol, complex logistics”.
♦ The characters
Henri Chalet did not choose – “Real heartbreak” – that eight singers among the 150 who make up the Maîtrise (if we exclude the little ones) and, before the fire, provided more than a thousand services per year and a weekly concert. Besides the purely musical criteria, he has “Tried to be human by giving priority to those who had experienced the fire in 2019”.
→ MAINTENANCE. In search of the lost colors of Notre-Dame de Paris
Among them, bass Nicolas Hézelot: “How not to think of my comrades who would have liked so much to be there? The Masters is a tight-knit entity and we are all proud to be a part of it. “ The eight choristers are joined by Yves Castagnet, holder of the Notre Dame choir organ, as well as soprano Julie Fuchs and cellist Gautier Capuçon.
♦ The program
“Christmas is so familiar to us at the Masters, Henri Chalet smiles. A period that has allowed us to honor the musical repertoire of Notre-Dame for… 850 years. “ From Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611) to Schubert and his Ave Maria under the bow of Gautier Capuçon, passing by the “Laudate Dominum” of the Vespers of a confessor by Mozart with the heady voice of Julie Fuchs as a soloist, “We will offer different faces of sacred music”.
Without forgetting the traditional songs, such The Angels in our countryside or Sweet night, “Without which there is no Christmas. Their optimism and their luminous simplicity are even more necessary for us this year ”, pleads the director of the Masters.
♦ “Special effects”
The “Double penalty” suffered by the Maîtrise de Notre-Dame, the fire then the health crisis, upset his daily life. Until what may seem like a detail but will appear obvious to the viewer. “The blue albs that we put on to sing were destroyed in April 2019, says Henri Chalet. But the worksite combinations that have been imposed on us today have the same blue color, marking a continuity… ”
Wetsuits and helmets are therefore required: for Julie Fuchs and Gautier Capuçon, we are far from the usual evening attire. “Accompanying Julie to a work clothes shop was a moment as funny as it was incongruous, evokes Frank David. As for Gautier, he ordered his outfit on the Internet. “ Beyond the anecdote, the uniqueness of this concert in the heart of the battered cathedral can be summed up in one word: emotion.
♦ The emotion
Directed by Jean-Pierre Devillers, the recording of the Christmas concert “Saw the moments of emotion follow one another”, testifies Frank David, however familiar with musical broadcasts as religious programs (2). Emphasizing the motivation of the technicians, he admits that “His dearest wish” would be to return regularly to record music at Notre-Dame.
→ READ. For me, Notre-Dame de Paris is …
Henri Chalet shares, of course, this dream. “I would also insist on the serenity that should reside in us. We could lament the future of the Masters, the concerts canceled, rescheduled, canceled again. “ Do and undo is certainly revealed “Time consuming and energy intensive” but necessary if you want, “Psychologically and musically, stay ready, mobilized”. And now to think about “New works for a new cathedral” that Notre-Dame will commission from composers to celebrate its reopening to the faithful.
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“The cathedral, even injured, is still alive”
Bishop Patrick Chauvet
Rector-Archpriest of Paris Cathedral
“This Christmas concert, recorded on December 12 due to the sanitary situation and the construction site, reminds us that the cathedral, even injured, is still alive. I have already listened to it in part: it is very beautiful; we feel the emotion of the singers of the Maîtrise, happy to return for the first time to Notre-Dame. Christmas carols are a sign of hope on the part of the cathedral. As for the concert by Jean-Michel Jarre offered by the city of Paris on the night of December 31 to 1is January, it will be broadcast live from the Gabriel studio with the cathedral as a backdrop, digitized before it blazes up. “
Collected by Claire Lesegretain
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