Paris (AFP)

With its crypt and sepulchres, the Pantheon is not exactly the kind of monument where people come to listen to songs.

It is there, however, that Grégoire Ichou, tenor and guide-lecturer, is preparing to show history differently.

From the Petit Palais to the Quimper museum, via the Villa Cavrois, in the North, the 30-year-old singer has been seducing French monuments and museums for nearly three years, eager for innovation to renew their audience.

Its formula?

A guided tour with songs, combining explanations around a canvas or a sculpture with tunes inspired by them.

A lively way to discover or rediscover works, by "hearing" them.

"It came from my two passions, from my two courses (...) I wanted to combine the two", explains to AFP this graduate in art history, musicology and mediation cultural.

“Every visitor will find something different there,” he adds.

For some, "it's original, it's more alive, maybe more moving to visit a heritage place, not only with knowledge, but with something that tries to link" intellect and affect.

During the dress rehearsal of his nocturnal visits to the Pantheon (six dates from October 1), he walks towards the tomb of Victor Hugo, explaining the turning point represented by the funeral of the great man in the history of this monument. national, originally built to be the Church of Sainte-Geneviève.

"The world today admires you, grouped around the great coffin," he then sings.

The song, "The baptism of school battalions", was written especially for the day of the pantheonization of Victor Hugo.

Grégoire Ichou spends long hours researching, especially at the National Library of France, to find these forgotten links.

"I want these pieces to be precisely linked to my visit (for) that it does not happen like a hair in the soup", explains the tenor who performs on Friday and again for a few dates at the Basilique Saint-Denis and is preparing "conferences-concerts" in the Halles district or even sung tours in the castle of Hardelot, in Pas-de-Calais.

- "Uncomplicate the monument" -

This is how he found "The Apotheosis of Jean-Jacques Rousseau" and "Hymn to Jean-Jacques Rousseau", written on the occasion of the pantheonization of the great philosopher whose tomb faces that of his rival Voltaire .

But if very few songs are the result of chance, Grégoire Ichou sometimes comes across surprises that emerge in anecdotes during the visit, which lasts a little over an hour.

Stopping in front of the grandiose paintings on the life of Joan of Arc by Jules Eugène Lenepveu, Ichou explains having found "the perfect musical translation": the oratorio "Jeanne D'Arc", composed by the painter's namesake and his contemporary, Charles Lenepveu.

Equipped with a tablet and a portable mini amp, the multilingual tenor-guide (five languages) is proud to share the pieces he unearths.

Like this excerpt from "The Astronomer", by lyricist François Lamy, which he sings near Foucault's pendulum, a Polish song harmonized by Francis Poulenc in honor of Marie Curie - the first pantheonized woman - or even "Sainte Geneviève de Paris ", written in 1893 and sung in front of a painting representing the patroness of Paris defending the city against the Huns of Attila.

He is also sensitive to the reverberation in the rooms he walks through.

"I like the idea of ​​making the place heard by visitors, not only through the songs but through the acoustics," he says.

For David Madec, administrator of the Pantheon, this kind of sung visit "uninhibits the monument".

"The Pantheon is a monument which is a little scary and which needs to show that it is accessible to all", he says.

In addition, the visit is "corona-compatible" ... with a capacity of 40 people at most.

© 2020 AFP