Henri Rabanit

Long-term comprimario of the Opéra de Marseille, from at least 1938 to 1960. In the second half of World War II, he must have slept at the studio of the Radiodiffusion Nationale, so often did he sing there – typically concerts of "musique légère", operetta or comic opera excerpts; occasionally also something like Tybalt in excerpts from Roméo et Juliette, or Guillot de Morfontaine in Manon excerpts. At least after the war, he was officially "premier ténor de la radio nationale", and sang on the radio at least until the mid-1950s. Guest appearance in Limoges as Schmidt in Werther on 30 October 1946 (a role that he sang in Marseille still in 1960). On stage, he was typically cast in really, really small roles. Whether any of his countless radio appearances has been preserved, I don't know.

Reference 1: Les Ondes – l'hebdomadaire de la radio, various issues throughout 1943 and 1944; reference 2: Le Populaire du Centre, 25 and 30 October 1946; reference 3: Journal officiel de la République française, 13 February 1938; reference 4