After studying in his native Canada, Quebec-born tenor Raoul Jobin (1906–1974) began singing there in concert in 1929 before embarking on further study at the Paris Conservatory. After his operatic début at the Paris Opéra (1930), he returned in 1931 to his homeland for concert tours and subsequently appeared in operas in the United States with the San Carlo Opera. His Paris Opéra career took off in 1934, and in 1937 he made both his Opéra-Comique and Covent Garden débuts. He made his New York Metropolitan Opera début in 1940 as Des Grieux to Grace Moore's Manon, and was frequently heard there in a variety of lyric roles until 1950.
