Rodolphe Plamondon

He studied voice and cello, first in Montréal, then in Rennes and Paris. He made his debut as a cellist in 1896, and sang as a tenor in Paris salons, where he met Massenet and Reynaldo Hahn.

His tenor debut in front of larger audiences took place in June 1897 in London, Windsor Hall, supporting Nellie Melba. His Paris debut was on December 31st of that same year, in a church concert with Jean-Baptiste Faure. So from the very beginning, he appeared in really prominent artistic contexts. In June 1898, he sang a concert at Royal Albert Hall with Pol Plançon and Clara Butt.

In opera, he took a slower start, as a comprimario in Vichy (1899) and Cairo (1900). During those first years, he continued to perform also as a cellist.

He sang his first main roles in opera 1906 in Monte Carlo: three times Faust, in Faust, Mefistofele and La damnation de Faust; the latter was to become his most important part, he sang it 250 times either on stage or in concert; it was also his debut role at the Paris Opéra on 6 June 1906.

However, his concert career was always more important than his operatic efforts, and he abandoned the stage (with but very few later exceptions) before WWI, remaining active as a very prominent concert tenor, mostly in France, but also in his native Canada or in Belgium. Saint-Saëns and d'Indy held him in high esteem and had him première some of their songs.

In 1928, he returned to Canada for good; his singing career was practically over, and he devoted most of his time to teaching voice.

Reference 1, reference 2, picture source