By Caroline de Sury
PARIS (OSV News) — In a much anticipated moment, for the first time in more than five years, the eight bells of the north tower of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris rang out again on Nov. 8. “It is a beautiful, important and symbolic step,” said Philippe Jost, head of the team overviewing the cathedral’s restoration, cited in French Catholic newspaper “La Croix.”
In fact, sounds are an inseparable part of Notre Dame’s beauty. Victor Hugo, a French literary giant who helped bring attention to a crumbling Notre Dame Cathedral in 19th century with “Notre Dame de Paris 1482” — restyled as “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” wrote that the cathedral acoustics and sound were “fraught with such benediction and such majesty, that they soothed this ailing soul.”
This is precisely what Henri Chalet, a qualified organist, director of the prestigious La Maîtrise Notre Dame de Paris choir since 2014, was longing to see, or rather hear, again.
The Maîtrise choir that “found itself orphaned” after the devastating April 15, 2019, fire that collapsed the spire and part of Notre Dame’s roof, causing extensive damage inside, will be back in Paris’ cathedral from Dec. 7, after five years of work on the cathedral’s restoration.
For eight days, Paris’ famous musicians will be mobilized for a packed schedule of ceremonies, including a special concert on Dec. 17 and 18, featuring Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Magnificat.”
Chalet is putting the finishing touches to an exceptionally rich program for the year 2025, which he describes as “historic,” featuring internationally renowned musicians and soloists.
Guest musicians will include American cellist Yo-Yo Ma, born to Chinese parents in Paris, raised and educated in New York City, who will play on the evening of March 25. He will perform Bach’s six cello suites, and three motets specially composed for Notre Dame’s reopening by the young French composer Lise Borel, and based on prayers by St. Francis of Assisi.”
The concert program will cover 1,000 years of repertoire, from medieval Gregorian to contemporary creations,” Chalet explained to OSV News.
Traditional iconic works will also be presented, such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Requiem,” Bach’s “St. John Passion” and another “Requiem” by Gabriel Fauré.
“We are all looking forward to this particular period with great emotion,” Chalet said. “The Maîtrise is 850 years old, just like the cathedral itself. Notre Dame was the birthplace of polyphonic singing and rhythmic writing. We are bound to its history.”
Thirty years ago, the Maîtrise Notre Dame received a new impetus, thanks to the collaboration of the state, the church and the city of Paris.
The choir “had partly lost its influence since the French Revolution, unlike English and German church choirs,” Chalet explained. “But in 1991, three strong personalities, Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, archbishop of Paris, Mayor of Paris Jacques Chirac, future French president, and Jack Lang, minister of culture, decided to combine their efforts to enable it to regain its excellence and prestige,” Chalet emphasized.
The blue alb worn today by Notre Dame choristers, in reference to the Virgin Mary, dates from this period.
Today, the Maîtrise has returned to a level of excellence, and is one of France’s leading vocal and choral training centers. It brings together 150 student choristers — the youngest being merely 5 years old — divided into four choirs.
Before the fire, it provided music for some 1,200 liturgical services a year in the cathedral, and a concert every Tuesday evening. “We were at Notre Dame almost every day,” Chalet recounted. “With the fire, from one day to the next, we found ourselves without a ‘home.’ We had to figure out how to survive, and invent a new rhythm to keep moving forward, passing on this ages-old know-how to young people.”
During the restoration works, the Maîtrise performed daily services in the church of Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois, and gave concerts in other churches, abbeys and cathedrals in France.
Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois is located directly across the street from the Louvre Palace and the iconic Notre Dame sculpture called the Virgin of the Pillar, or the Virgin of Paris, also found a new temporary home there, until it is returned to the restored cathedral at the end of November.
“We tried to take advantage of these opportunities to make the cathedral and its choir better known to the outside world,” Chalet explained. “We were invited to prestigious venues in Paris, such as the Opéra Garnier, or the Théâtre des Champs Elysées, where we had never sung before.”
Chalet recalled that what was truly exceptional was the tour of the United States in October 2023.
“This was a first,” he said. “Previously, we never went abroad, with a few exceptions in Europe.” The Maîtrise adult choir visited New York, Cleveland, Atlanta, Huntsville (Alabama), Dallas and Chicago for sold-out concerts.
“It was a great success,” Chalet said. “We were happy to sing for an audience that we felt was passionate about Notre Dame. It was a way of thanking the Americans for their great interest and generosity in its restoration.”
Today, Chalet hopes to be able to at least once rehearse in the cathedral with the entire Maîtrise before the Dec. 7 start of reopening ceremonies, but nothing is certain yet.
“The work is still underway and the schedule is tight,” he said. “At this very moment, specialists are working through the night, when the noise of the construction work is gone, to tune the great organ. There is a lot of work to be done, with its 8,000 pipes having been cleaned of the lead dust that covered them during the night of the fire,” he said.
For his part, Chalet has been able to enter Notre Dame twice since the fire. “I sang there in December 2020 with a few choristers,” he said. “Restoration work had just begun. There were still holes in the vault, and it was extremely cold. But the emotion was enormous to see that, despite everything, the cathedral was standing.”
In December 2023, he reentered the cathedral to record Christmas carols. “There were 16 of us this time,” he recounted. “The work had progressed well, but the scaffolding was still there, and the protocol remained very strict. We were wearing helmets and boots, and protective suits under our blue albs, because of the risk of lead pollution.”
“It was a real joy to see this white stone of the cathedral, cleaned,” he said. “We discovered the cathedral all lit up!”
Emotions are extremely high as the reopening approaches, he said. “Some of the children, who were very young at the time of the fire, remember singing in the cathedral. They are about 15 now, and cannot wait to get inside again,” he recounted. “They will discover a different cathedral, bright and beautifully enhanced,” Chalet said.
“We have sung in a lot of beautiful places in recent years,” he concluded. “But at Notre Dame, there is ‘something extra.’ It is a place that speaks to everyone, and to the whole world. It is going to be a great thrill to be able to return there.”
