His father was a music teacher and he started singing as a child in the Maîtrise Saint-Evode in Rouen.
[1] The sudden death of his mother and family upheaval meant a break of twelve years in regular singing.
After his debut as the musician monk in Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame on 14 January 1940, he went to create the following roles at the Opéra-Comique: He also sang in The Barber of Seville, La Basoche, Carmen, Lakmé, Louise, Madame Bovary, Madame Butterfly, Werther, Pelléas et Mélisande and oratorios like La Chanson du mal-aimé.
He is also regarded as one of the best interpreters of French mélodies, of which he left many recordings, since reissued on CD, and of Fauré's Requiem.
His repertoire extended back to music of Rameau through to Arthur Honegger, Léo Ferré and other contemporaries.