D-5 before the reopening of Notre-Dame. The cathedral will reopen on Saturday, December 7, after more than five years of construction which involved some 2,000 people. An adventure that some have decided to extend by joining the choir of companions who will sing on December 11 in the cathedral. Franceinfo met some of these amateur singers during one of their last rehearsals.
It was a November evening: the 87 singers were rehearsing at the Saint-Séverin church, a few minutes' walk from Notre-Dame, under the direction of choir director Frédéric Pineau: “What is completely striking is to find yourself faced with a group of people who in their lives create beauty, art, and decide to create beauty in another field that is not theirs. That’s extremely touching.” The first rehearsal took place in a church and with the organist Yves Castagnet, who will accompany them on December 11 when they will sing, during the donors' mass, the canticle of Jean Racine by Gabriel Fauré.
Stéphanie Duchêne, engineer at the historical monuments research laboratory, had the idea for this choir. With her colleague Dorothée Chaoui Derieux, archaeologist at the regional directorate of cultural affairs, she launched an appeal to all those working on the Notre-Dame construction site. The enthusiasm was immediate with around a hundred positive responses, from all trades, says Stéphanie Duchêne: “We all feel that we are going to have nostalgia for this construction site. I think that is what spoke to musicians and non-musicians alike and the desire to get together until the reopening.”
Among those who said “oui” straight away, there is Marie-Cécile Kfouri. She is a restorer of murals: “I thought it was a very, very good idea. It’s a last tribute that we could all pay to him together. We all worked for two, three, four, five years for some. And there, to sing together one last time in Notre-Dame, to say goodbye to each other, to say goodbye to Notre-Dame, a few years away from a great adventure.”
In this choir, everyone was welcome, musician or not: some had never sung. Romain Renaud is a carpenter, is not a musician but as a companion he is used to singing. He remembers the first rehearsal last spring very well: “At the first rehearsal, I said to myself: 'We will never be ready'. I didn't believe it at all. Everyone's levels were very disparate. There were people who didn't even know in what range they sang. And the choir director was able, in a very short time, to obtain a very satisfactory result from us. I am not a specialist, but I can see that we are singing in tune. I hope that on the big day. , we won't have the throat in heels and that we will be able to do as well as in rehearsal.”
“I think everyone is very happy and very proud of their progress and to hear the group which has progressed in an undeniable way since the beginning.”
Romain Renaud, charpentierat franceinfo
This chorus, everyone says, is a way of prolonging the adventure, of postponing the moment when we will have to leave Notre-Dame. A moment that Aurélie Wibaux, responsible for piloting the site, fears: “In our head it's a work in progress. Seeing it in transition, becoming a church, it's a phase that we're going through now but which is not easy for us to go through. Because, somewhere, that means that we are obliged to give our baby back to others. It's a bit complicated. For me, this project is a dream, it's unexpected, it's a project that I will remember for the rest of my life. life. That’s what it’s for. even more difficult when it stops.”
Everyone is looking towards the reopening and towards Wednesday December 11 when they will sing in Notre-Dame. At the end of the rehearsal, Marie-Cécile Kfoury, the painting restorer, measures the work accomplished: “When we sing, at the end of the rehearsal, the entire song and here today with the organ, it's a great moment. It's grandiose. There, we project ourselves a lot because it's the first time rehearsing in a church, so with an acoustic, an organ, so we imagine ourselves very well and then we say to ourselves that there is still a little work, but that we will get there.”
Nostalgic, Marie-Cécile Kfoury concludes: “On December 11, when we sing Jean Racine's canticle, it will be our last farewell to Notre-Dame, we will definitively leave our status as workers at Notre-Dame. It will be the last thing we do for Notre-Dame. “ On December 11, for the concert, the singers of this choir will wear the companion carpenters' jacket on which the new cock of Notre-Dame has been embroidered.
