Category Archives: Opera

Alfie Boe Returns to ENO

What exciting news to wake up to this morning – Alfie Boe is to return to London’s ENO for a limited season of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, Carousel. In the semi staged show, Alfie will play Billy Bigelow opposite Katherine Jenkins’ Julie Jordan, a casting that reunites them immediately after their one off Dubai Opera appearance on March 30th. The pair have worked together many times previously, including a sublime duet of Barcelona on Katherine’s album, Home Sweet Home.

Carousel is full of iconic songs and Alfie has sung two of them before: You’ll Never Walk Alone is the encore song for the current Together tour as well as featuring on the top ten album of the same name and If I Loved You appears on Bring Him Home:

Carousel is the latest in a line of ENO semi staged musicals to grace the London Coliseum, with Sweeney Todd and Sunset Boulevard gaining rave reviews and sell out audiences (Lonny Price who directed both shows will also direct Carousel). You’ll notice that I haven’t included the ill-fated Kismet – the less said the better! Jenkins will make her stage debut in this production of Carousel and that, coupled with Alfie’s legions of fans is bound to mean that the show will be amongst the most sought after in 2017.

Alfie last appeared at the London Coliseum with ENO in Jonathan Miller’s production of The Mikado back in 2011 and since then his career has taken him in a different direction although he has of course played the lead in two Broadway musical productions in the last year. Will this announcement mean Alfie will take on more roles like this? I can’t wait to find out!

Alfie and Katherine’s Barcelona is available here:

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Boe and Ball: A Fantastic Evening in Nottingham

Into the third week of the Alfie Boe Michael Ball Together tour and it’s the turn of our Nottingham guest reviewer, Heather Moore to tell us her thoughts on the tour. Heather has been a Michael Ball fan since she was twelve years old, first having seen him singing One Step Out Of Time at the Eurovision song contest. Three years later, she first saw him live in Passion. Heather found Alfie seven years ago via an early album and the DVD of La Boheme. With all this in mind, it’s fair to say that hopes were high for Heather’s first concert of this tour. This is what she says:

There was a buzz before Alfie and Michael took to the stage; everyone was looking forward to a great night and that’s what this twinkling twosome delivered. Alfie was really bouncing off the audience and the Concert Hall seemed to suit him more than the Nottingham Arena where I had seen his concert two years before. It felt more personal somehow and more interactive with lots of laughs on stage. Alfie even joked with the ushers. Michael was enjoying himself too. The reason we were all there was the music and these gentleman didn’t disappoint. The music choices were super, of course many of the songs from the new album, starting with Somewhere where we were transported into the musical theatre world. I loved A Thousand Years and the Wonderful World and Somewhere Over the Rainbow medley worked very well. The backdrops were fantastic too – the graphics added to the special feeling for the occasion.

I thought Michael and Alfie’s voices blended well together and it didn’t feel like they were competing with each other, instead they complimented each other. I also enjoyed the solo spots. Alfie got all the audience singing along to Keep Me In Your Heart – it was great fun watching Alfie bounce around the stage. Michael used his spot to sing the very powerful Gethsemane and Michael’s story of watching Jesus Christ Superstar as an eleven year old was touching. Of course Michael sang Love Changes Everything and of course the whole audience sang along.

The orchestra and the singers Izzy, Tori and Lauren were great although I would have liked them to have been brought in a bit more on the Les Miserables segment but that’s only a small point. The Les Miserables section got the first standing ovation of the night. I also loved the Elvis and James Bond medleys. Michael singing Skyfall was a highlight for me. The show ended all too soon but that’s what happens when you’re having fun! The closing song was my favourite ever song You’ll Never Walk Alone and as we all stood and clapped and waved to the brilliant pair this was a fantastic end to a fabulous evening.

I have been a fan of these two for a long while and I will continue to follow these talented chaps for I hope many years to come.

Thanks Heather for a great review – here are Alfie and Michael singing Somewhere (thanks Linda W for sharing):

If anyone wants to see Alfie back in his opera days, La Boheme is available here (it’s in English and very accessible so don’t let the thought of opera put you off!):

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On This Day, 7 September 2006, Alfie Boe Sang…

… Nessun Dorma on ITV’s Lorraine show:

This time, it’s thanks to Alfie for sharing!

As Lorraine Kelly says, amazing to hear such passion in such a fantastic voice – and early in the morning too! Alfie was of course promoting his debut album, Classic FM Presents, an album that he doesn’t seem to be keen on, judging by his autobiography but is one that I listen to often. I still think of myself as incredibly lucky to have heard Alfie sing Nessun Dorma on the Serenata tour two years ago – you could have a pin drop in all the arenas in which Alfie appeared.

Apart from the voice, the other things I love about this video are Alfie’s attire – an early indication that operatic arias and suits are not inextricably linked in Alfie’s mind – and how much he looks like Declan Donnelly throughout. It seems to me that the likeness grows during the singing but of course that could just be me projecting…I pretty sure I’m not telling you anything new when I say I think Dec is cute too. Check out Alf and Dec if you don’t believe me.

Alfie’s autobiography is available here:

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Alfie Boe’s 3rd Annual Best Ever Song Vote

Welcome to the nominations for the third annual Alfie Boe Best Ever (recorded) song poll – I know it doesn’t seem too long since we chose our favourite live song but we need something to keep us going over the summer, don’t we?

The current list of songs nominated in past years can be found on Spotify by clicking here – if your favourite song isn’t listed, please let me know and we’ll add to the list. All you need to do is fill in the form*:

The only restriction is that it needs to be a song recorded by Alfie.

Nominations will close mid August ready for voting to begin shortly after and the top ten will be counted down from the end of August…which will be ten weeks until the start of the Ball and Boe tour!

The first winner was, to no one’s surprise, Bring Him Home but the second winner was from Alfie’s most recent album, Serenata, Addio Sogni do Gloria. Bring Him Home didn’t even make the top three! Will it make it back to the top this year? It’s over to you – here’s last year’s top ten to help you think:

If you haven’t yet ordered Alfie’s forthcoming album with Michael Ball, it’s available here:

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Alfie Boe’s Best Live Song 2016: 8 to 7

Although we’re in the midst of full blown excitement about the Alfie Boe and Michael Ball Together Tour, we’re also counting down the fans favourite Alfie Boe Live Song. Last week saw the publication of numbers 9 and 10, both new entries this year.

This week, we’re looking at 7 and 8. The song voted in at number 8 is a song that made it to the top five in 2014, You Are My Heart’s Delight from Blackpool (thanks Nikki Lewis for sharing):

Oh what a magical moment that was, made all the more special by knowing Alfie’s family were in the audience that night. Anyone familiar with Alfie story knows that You Are My Heart’s Delight is a personal favourite for him and his father, Alfred. As well as singing it for his first D’oyly Carte audition, Alfie spent many a Sunday lunchtime in the Boe household listening to Alf senior’s music and Alfie says that Richard Tauber was one of his father’s favourite singers. Tauber became particularly well known for singing the song; indeed it comes from a 1929 operetta, The Land of Smiles, written for his voice by Franz Lehar. Click here to see Tauber’s version. Alfie’s English version is one my joint favourite album, Love Was A Dream. My other favourite album is nothing like this!

Onto the next song, number 7 in the countdown which is another top five number from 2014: Buona Sera. At that time, we had only seen Alfie sing it live at the Belfast Proms and at a charity concert in Utah earlier that year but that was before the Serenata tour when we heard it at the end of every concert:

Thanks to Linda W for sharing, this was the first concert of that tour – roll on the next one in November!

Written by Peter de Rose and Carl Sigman (Sigman also wrote the lyrics to the English version of Arrivederci Roma), most people will be familiar with the Dean Martin version. However, the song was first recorded by Louis Prima (click here to see that version). Prima was a big band, swing singer of the mid twentieth century and Buona Sera was one of a long line of hits. Incidentally, Prima is the voice of King Louis in Disney’s The Jungle Book.

Love Was A Dream and Serenata are available here:

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Alfie Boe on Enrico Caruso

Bereft. That’s the word I’m using to explain how I feel today when I realise that there are no more Alfie Boe’s Opera Heroes to look forward to on Monday evenings. Last night saw the final episode, and featured, to my mind, the best voice of the three, Enrico Caruso. The programme on Maria Callas moved me more but that was due in part to the emotional connection with my father, rather than the voice itself.

Of the three singers, Caruso’s was the story I was least familiar with and Alfie fans may well have felt that there are some easy comparisons between the two singers’ early lives. Caruso seems to have had more difficulties with women than Alfie though!

I feel that the arias chosen really complimented both his career and voice. In many cases, they were very familiar from listening to Alfie’s own recordings. For me personally, it was a treat to hear so much about the productions Caruso appeared in, rather than focusing just on the recordings, magnificent though they are. Hearing Puccini’s reaction to Caruso singing Che Gelida Manina was a little gem although that moment was nothing compared to the even better gem about Nellie Melba’s hot sausage in La Boheme! Like Alfie, I so hope that was a true story (thanks to Annie for sharing the video):

I found Alfie’s comment on Caruso’s recording of Over There interesting as well although I’m afraid all I could hear over the tune was Alfie’s fellow tenor Wynne Evans and Go Compare. Sorry! My favourite track from the programme was Recondita Armonia:

Overall, Alfie on opera has been great and I’m sure that he has many more favourites than the three featured; he always seems to choose a different favourite when asked in interviews. Let’s hope that another series might be on the cards at a later date. It has also been refreshing to hear operatic arias on Radio 2 rather than their usual home of Radio 3, which tends to come across as rather elitist and snobbish about opera. A channel for the opera purists is how I think of it and of course that is what it is and should be as there are precious few radio channels available that air operas in full. If full operas are not your cup of tea but you do like tenors and sopranos singing certain arias, having them presented knowledgeably and enthusiastically on Radio 2 by a tenor who ‘sings a bit’ is a great introduction and will hopefully mean a few more people enjoying this wonderful music.

If you have enjoyed listening to Alfie’s opera heroes and want to explore Alfie’s own classical recordings in more depth, click here to find Alfie’s full discography. In the meantime, here is Alfie’s version of A Vucchella which beats Caruso hands down (and I know I’m not the only one to think this way):

Alfie Boe’s Opera Heroes are still available (worldwide) on BBC iPlayer – click here.

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Happy Alfie Boe Happiness Day!

Alright, alright, it’s actually International Happiness Day but I got the title idea from my 9yo who looked at the 2015 Happy International Day of Happiness Alfie Boe Fans and said “it’s not really Happy Alfie Boe Day is it”? We don’t exactly see eye to eye on our musical tastes although he has been known to sing along to Alfie songs before and even uttered the immortal line (on hearing Elvis sing If I Can Dream) “this is Alfie’s song, why is Elvis singing it”.

To celebrate, these are some of my favourite Alfie tracks from each of his albums:

E Lucevan Le Stelle (Classic FM Presents) – video from first series of BBC Maestro

The song recently voted the favourite Alfie Boe recorded song, A Living Prayer (Onward) – from Songs of Praise

Funiculi Funicula (La Passione) – this was a hard choice as I could easily have chosen the whole album!

On The Street Where You Live (Bring Him Home) – from QVC, picked because my son’s choir used to sing this:

In My Daughter’s Eyes (Alfie) – for all parents and children everywhere:

Angie (Storyteller)- loved the original, this is better:

My all time favourite Alfie song (so far) is Keep Me In Your Heart (Trust) – something to do with those buttons…

Addio Sogni di Gloria (Serenata) was my favourite in the Serenata review and it hasn’t changed:

The eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed that Love Was A Dream is missing – as far as I’m aware we don’t have video of Alfie singing my favourite song from that album. Maybe one day…

What are your songs from all Alfie’s albums? Let us know below:

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So You Thought You Knew Alfie Boe…

A week on from the question How well do you know Alfie Boe? and it’s time to see how you did.

Which role will Alfie shortly take over on Broadway? JM Barrie in Finding Neverland
Who did Alfie pick as his favourite Javert in an interview with thoughtsofjustafan last year? Norm Lewis and Earl Carpenter (click here for the interview)
How many brothers and sisters does Alfie have and what are their names? 8: Anne, Joseph, John, Pauline, Michael, Fran, Teresa, Maria
What are the names of the two alternate Rodolfo’s in Baz Luhrman’s La Boheme? David Miller and Jesus Garcia
What is the name of Alfie’s management company? Vector
Name the support acts for Alfie’s three headline tours (Bring Him Home, Storyteller and Serenata). Laura Wright (if you relied on the tour DVD for this answer you may have got it wrong!), Emilia Mitiku and Sol3 Mio
Alfie won Glyndebourne’s Christie prize – what was the role? Albert Herring
In which opera house was Alfie’s last operatic role? Coliseum (ENO)
And which opera was he performing in? The Mikado
What was the name of the new song that Alfie revealed at Leeds in 2015? Against the Tide

If you got 10 you’re an Alfie Boe mastermind champion

If you got 6+, you’re a strong contender

If you got 3-5, call yourself a fan?

Less than 4 and you’re probably scratching your head and saying Alfie who?

So, how did you do? Come and tell us if you got 10 out of 10!

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Alfie Boe on Maria Callas

Maria Callas was one of the first musical voices I remember hearing on record when I was growing up – my Dad was a huge fan and was lucky enough to see her perform at Covent Garden. I can still see the look on his face when he reminisced about these performances and if I had to describe that look I’d probably say it was akin to the look on the faces of Alfie fans when they first hear him sing live. When you’re struck by a voice, it really hits you.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, of course, last night saw the first episode of Alfie Boe’s Opera Heroes in which the first hero was Maria Callas, the most famous soprano of the twentieth century. Guiding us through Callas’ life and career, the emphasis of the programme was on the sublime voice, with a large portion of the programme given over to Callas’ recordings.

Alfie fans will know that he was introduced to opera by his elder brother Michael (thanks Michael!) and we again heard of the importance of music to the Boe family home, with Callas being the favourite voice of Michael. Apparently, Michael still owns every Callas recording on vinyl and CD. In my first ever interview for thoughtsofjustafan, Michael’s reply to the question ‘Which person, alive or dead, would you most like to sing with’ met with the response that “I’m a HUGE Callas fan and would have loved to have sung with her”. Click here to see who else Michael said he loved singing with. Alfie told us that the Easter Hymn from Cavalleria Rusticana was Michael’s favourite Callas recording – is it still the same, Michael?

Even though the voice of Callas was showcased, no programme about her could ever be complete without mention of Aristotle Onassis. In some respects, their relationship has overshadowed her career but in others, the story of their relationship is perfectly suited to the image of her as the ultimate tragic diva. It would have been interesting to have followed this idea further to see how much our idea of Callas the singer is influenced by her private life. Having said that, Alfie touched on this idea when he said that the story of Callas and Onassis is so well known and perfectly suited to to opera that it’s surprising no one has written it yet. If we can have operas about Anna Nicole Smith and Jerry Springer, why not Callas and Onassis?

As a presenter, Alfie’s natural passion and enthusiasm shone through; if we can’t hear Alfie singing opera, the next best thing is to hear him talk about it with such enthusiasm and passion. In a fitting end to the programme, Alfie spoke with absolute conviction that Callas knew her art and her audience inside out, left us with a quote from Callas herself:

I give a little happiness. Music has enriched my life and hopefully, through me, a little of the public’s life too. If anyone left an opera house feeling more happy and at peace, I have achieve my purpose.

It seems to me that this quote could be used to sum up Alfie’s attitude to music and his audience too. I’ll leave you with Callas and Giuseppe di Stefano (another operatic superstar I’ve heard Alfie enthuse about) singing an aria from La Boheme that all self respecting Alfie fans should recognise:

Alfie Boe on Maria Callas is available on BBC Radio iPlayer (click here) and the next two episodes will feature Mario Lanza and Enrico Caruso.

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So You Think You Know Alfie Boe?

If you’re reading this then you must be a fan of Alfie Boe, right? But how well do you know the man himself? Could he be your specialist subject on Mastermind? If you’ve been left shouting ‘Alfie Boe’ at the TV during Pointless when the contestants didn’t have a clue, perhaps this is the quiz for you.

There’s not a prize though, just the satisfaction of scoring ten out of ten. Good luck – answers next week.

Which role will Alfie shortly take over on Broadway?
Who did Alfie pick as his favourite Javert in an interview with thoughtsofjustafan last year?
How many brothers and sisters does Alfie have and what are their names?
What are the names of the two alternate Rodolfo’s in Baz Luhrman’s La Boheme?
What is the name of Alfie’s management company?
Name the support acts for Alfie’s three headline tours (Bring Him Home, Storyteller and Serenata).
Alfie won Glyndebourne’s Christie prize – what was the role?
In which opera house was Alfie’s last operatic role?
And which opera was he performing in?
What was the name of the new song that Alfie revealed at Leeds in 2015?

Answers revealed next week! In the meantime, don’t forget to tun into BBC Radio 2 on Monday 14 March at 10pm for Alfie’s Opera Heroes!

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