 Having taken vocal lessons with Charles Panzéra, from 1938 he studied under Claire Croiza and Georges Viseur (solfège) at the Paris Conservatoire.He also took classes with René Simon and Louis Jouvet and won prizes which might have allowed him to follow a career in acting.In 1939 he sang the fountain scene (Act 2 scene 1) and the tower scene (Act 3 scene 1) of Claude Debussy's opera "Pelléas et Mélisande" with the Orchestre National de France under Inghelbrecht, an experience which left him overwhelmed with joy.