Antoine Bélanger / Ocene

Mixed with palpable joy at being able to stage these sorts of events again, there is also trepidation as attendees dutifully scan their documents and don masks for entry. An ambivalence marks the evening’s realization, too. Absolute devotion characterizes every musician’s performance, to be sure. But there is also a sense that absolute devotion might not be enough to pull us through this crisis — that we may soon again be shuffled back indoors at the mercy of science, forced to forgo the spiritual tonic of singing Hallelujah and other such superstitions.