French baritone, particularly associated with the French repertory, both opera and operetta.
Born Maurice Marcel, the son of a journalist, he studied at the Academy of Music in Roubaix. He made his debut at the Opéra de Lille, as Wagner in Gounod’s Faust, in 1934, and remained there as a member until 1936. Thereafter he sang at the Opera Houses of Bordeaux, Grenoble, Toulouse and Marseille. In 1943, he was heard at the Monte Carlo Opera as Escamillo, Valentin and the Count in Le nozze di Figaro.
After the Second World War, he began a very successful career at the Opéra-Comique and the Palais Garnier in Paris. His roles at the Opéra-Comique included; Figaro, Lescaut, Zurga, Frédéric, Ourrias, Dapertutto, Alfio, Marcello, Scarpia, et al., he took part there in the creation of Emmanuel Bondeville’s Madame Bovary, on June 1, 1951. His debut role at the Opéra in 1947 was in the title role of Rigoletto, he also sang there as Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, Hérode in Hérodiade, Athanaël in Thais, et al. He appeared with success at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and at most of the great Opera Houses of France. He also appeared in Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, North Africa.
He enjoyed a remarkably long and successful career, singing in opera as late as 1979, and also scoring magnificent success in French and Viennese operettas, notably in Lehár’s The Land of Smiles and The Merry Widow. He also sang in works by Louis Varney, Robert Planquette, Charles Lecocq, André Messager, et al. As late as 1992, he gave concerts in Paris and Marseille. He was made a Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur.
With his well trained and expressive baritone voice, Dens was a tireless and amazingly consistent performer (singing Sou-Chong in Land of Smiles 250 consecutive nights during the 1951-52 season). He sang an estimated 10,000 performances during his long career.
Link to Wikipedia biography