Let me tell you about singing in Notre Dame Cathedral. (Pic courtesy New York Times.)

You walk up the steps, enter the nave, and meet a priest, who tells you to use the "musician's entrance," which is along the side.

After about 150 yards, you climb a flight of marble steps with shallow gullies in the middle from all of the traffic (Bach, Faure, Beethoven, Stravinsky, etc.) and enter a damp, dark room without running water or bathroom. When called, you climb a narrow, spiral staircase and walk out onto the main altar, next to a pipe organ, with 500 people looking at you while they pray.

Here's Tantum Ergo by Gabriel Faure, recorded at La Basilic de St. Martin de Tours; not recorded at Notre Dame Cathedral, but sung there, too.

By an angelic ensemble: Laura Loomis, Jane Boyte, Connie Flaherty, Jeannie Moore, Karen Bowden, Marcia Ronchetti, and Dot DeWitte.