Gérard Paradis

Tenor, actor, b Montreal 9 Feb 1921. He studied singing with Céline Marier, Pauline Donalda, Salvator Issaurel, and Albert Cornellier, and piano and solfège with Marie-Thérèse Paquin. He made his radio debut in 1942 on station CKAC and his stage debut 5 Oct 1944 in Offenbach's Barbe-bleue at the Variétés lyriques, where he sang regularly until 1955. He also worked with the Théâtre lyrique de Nouvelle-France and took part in productions of operettas by Radio Mutuel. He was heard on CBC radio in 'Théâtre lyrique Molson' and 'Les Joyeux Troubadours' 1951-77 and appeared on CBC TV in 'Les Soirées de chez-nous' in 1958 and 'Toi et Moi en musique' in 1960. His career centred on operetta; he sang such leading roles as Pomponnet in Lecocq's La Fille de Madame Angot, Prince Lothar in Oscar Straus' Rêve de valse, Parabella in Offenbach's La Périchole, Antonin in Hahn's Ciboulette, and Grenicheux in Planquette's Les Cloches de Corneville.

Paradis's wife is the soprano and actress Jacqueline (Marguerite) Plouffe (b Montreal 11 Feb 1922 - 22 Aug 2012), a graduate of Montreal's Conservatoire national with a diploma in diction and phonetics. She was a pupil of Issaurel and Cornellier and made her debut at 17 at the Variétés lyriques, subsequently appearing in more than 30 roles there. A specialist in late-19th-century French operettas, she has sung in many of these on CBC TV and with companies in Quebec City and Montreal.