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Uncredited / AP
Julie Fuchs and the Notre Dame Cathedral Choir recording a Christmas concert inside Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
Wearing helmets and protective suits, members of the Notre Dame Cathedral choir sang inside Paris’s medieval monument for the first time since last year’s devastating fire for a special Christmas Eve concert.
Accompanied by an acclaimed cellist and a rented organ, the singers performed under the cathedral’s stained glass windows amid the darkened church, which is evolving from a dangerous and precarious clean-up operation to a massive rebuilding site.
MSNDP / Sacred Music at Notre-Dame de Paris / AP
Cellist Gautier Capucon and the Notre Dame Cathedral Choir record a Christmas concert inside Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
Initially, the choir planned to bring in 20 singers, but for security reasons they were limited to eight.
The choir members kept social distance in order to take off their masks, which is required indoors in France to stop the spread of the virus, and sing.
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Uncredited / AP
The concert will be broadcast on French television at Christmas.
The concert, included Silent Night in English and French, The Hymn of the Angels, and even Jingle bells, was recorded earlier this month and broadcast just before midnight on Thursday (French time). The public was not allowed and is not expected to see the interior of Notre Dame until at least 2024.
The diocese called it a “highly symbolic concert … marked by emotion and hope,” and a celebration of a “musical heritage dating back to the Middle Ages.”
Christophe Ena / AP
The faithful attend Christmas Eve at the Saint Germain l’Auxerrois church in Paris.
The Archbishop of Paris, Monsignor Michel Aupetit, held Christmas Eve services at the Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois church in front of the Louvre Museum instead of Notre Dame.
The Notre Dame choir used to give 60 concerts a year inside the cathedral, but has been itinerant ever since, moving between other churches in Paris.
The April 2019 fire consumed the cathedral’s lead roof and destroyed its spire, and only earlier this month did workers finally stabilize the site enough to begin reconstruction.
Christophe Ena / AP
Faithful wearing face masks to protect themselves against the coronavirus attend Christmas Eve at the Saint Germain l’Auxerrois church in Paris.
Christophe Ena / AP
Faithful who wear face masks to protect themselves against the coronavirus attend Christmas Eve at the Saint Germain l’Auxerrois church in Paris.
Christophe Ena / AP
Faithful who wear face masks to protect themselves against the coronavirus attend Christmas Eve at the Saint Germain l’Auxerrois church in Paris.
