Hi everyone,

As you know I am going to be playing the role of Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet at the Royal Opera House later in the year. Most Tenor roles that I’ve played have been the typical romantic lead but this is an opportunity to be the opposite. 

Tybalt is quite the wild man of the piece, he’s a guy who likes to lead the pack in revolt.  His rage against Romeo shows with a tremendous fight in the third act which results in his death, so early to bed for me then. The role has a great aria and also chorus scene with wonderful music. I hope you enjoy it and always a pleasure to meet you after the shows.

Much love

Alfie x

Alfie has agreed to become patron of the newly formed Huddersfield Youth Opera.

Huddersfield Youth Opera aims to create an opera production in the autumn of each year to provide a vehicle in the north for emerging young opera professionals to showcase their talents.

On September 25th 2010, they will launch the organisation with a gala concert of opera scenes in Huddersfield. They will then invite opera companies and journalists to help advance the careers of the performers in addition to influential figures and potential funders to promote the staged productions of subsequent years.

Alfie is looking forward to his association with the company and to promoting young opera talent.

If you’d like to show your support, the opening gala is on 25 September 2010
At the Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield (Main Stage)
At 7.30pm
Tickets are £12, £10, £8 / concessions £2 off
Conductor Fraser Goulding and scenes directed by Jonathan Clift

Alfie will be a guest performer at  the Jose Carreras Gala

Venue – Royal Albert Hall, London

Date – Wednesday 8 December 2010 – 7:30 PM

Following the enormous success of his 2008 Gala Concert at the Hall, José Carreras returns for a new evening in aid of the José Carreras International Leukaemia Foundation and Asthma UK, once again sponsored by The Hottinger Group.

This year’s Gala will be a celebration of young talent.  The first half of the evening will be a semi-staged performance of the Party Scene from Die Fledermaus featuring Diva Opera and young stars from the Solti-Te Kanawa Academia with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by maestro David Giménez.

The second half will include performances by Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, José Carreras, Alfie Boe, winner of Placido Domingo’s Operalia competition Dimos Flemotomos, as well as other surprise guests!

In anticipation of this year’s concert José Carreras said: ‘I have wonderful memories from the 2008 Gala, the warmth and generosity of the audience and the incredible performances by my fellow artists and I’m greatly looking forward to being with you all again this December.’

Source: Royal Albert Hall

Thursday 16 September, 8pm

National Concert Hall

RTÉ Concert Orchestra
Alfie Boe tenor
Special guest Fiona Murphy
John Wilson conductor

Star British tenor Alfie Boe went from earning £70 a week as a car mechanic to being hailed by the Observer as ‘a stunning discovery who could be the best tenor of his generation’. Overheard singing as he repaired a car, Alfie so impressed the owner – who worked in opera – that he advised him to audition for the D’Oyly Carte Company. Since then, he has won acclaim and audiences worldwide – so far he has won a Tony award, the John McCormack Young Voice award and the Lyric Tenor of the World Audience award. Described by director Baz Luhrmann as ‘absolutely extraordinary’, Alfie has managed to combine mass popularity with critical rave reviews.

He joins the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and special guest Fiona Murphy to perform the music of Franz Lehár, bringing his own trademark charm to music that it itself full of melodic lightness and appeal. Alfie’s Lehár CD has seen him compared to Richard Tauber and been acclaimed as ‘a perfect vehicle for Boe’s smooth tones and winning personality’ (Classic FM Magazine).

And apart from any of that, how can you miss the singer of whom The Irish Times wrote after his 2008 RTÉ CO concert: ‘Picture a young Michael Douglas who speaks like Mick McCarthy, now try adding a nice tenor voice’!

Tickets: €15, €30, €45 (concessions: €13.50, €27, €40.50)
Booking: 01 417 0000 www.rte.ie/concertorchestra

Source: RTE Concert Orchestra

As you may have heard Alfie missed the June 10th and June 12th performances of the ENO’ Pearl Fishers due to illness. He is recovering well and sends the message below…

Thanks for all your messages. Wanting to get back to the show for saturday was wishful thinking, I’m still not 100% but getting there. Thank you all for your kind words and a special thanks to little Aimee who offered to send me some cough mixture. I’ll be back soon, on form.

Much love

Alfie x

As you may have heard Alfie missed the June 10th performance of the ENO’ Pearl Fishers due to illness. He is recovering well and sends the message below…

“Not lost the voice, still there. Just came down with a bad flu but should be back on my feet soon. Hopefully this saturdays show. Thanks for all your concerns and messages.”

 Love

Alfie x

Alfie’s reply to all of your kind messages of support …

You are all so kind to send me your thoughts and wishes. I am so lucky to have your support. 

I hope you enjoy the Pearl Fishers and the Les Miserables too.

 Love 

Alfie x

In October this year, the legendary musical “LES MISÉRABLES” will celebrate its 25th birthday by making theatrical history with an international first – three different productions in London at the same time. The Original Production at the Queen’s Theatre, the New 25th Anniversary Production at the Barbican, London and now, stars in their multitudes will gather for a celebratory concert at The O2 on Sunday 3rd October at 7.00pm, when all three productions and many of the shows original cast will come together to celebrate this momentous occasion.

The 25th Anniversary concert at The O2 will host a company of over 300 actors and musicians, including Alfie Boe as Jean Valjean, Nick Jonas as Marius, Norm Lewis as Javert, Matt Lucas as Thénardier, Lea Salonga as Fantine, Jenny Galloway as Madame Thénardier, Camilla Kerslake as Cosette and the casts of the Original Production at the Queen’s Theatre, the New 25th Anniversary Production at the Barbican, London and members of the Original 1985 London cast.

Heading The O2 Concert cast is Alfie Boe, one of the country’s leading tenors and best selling recording artists. Alfie shot to fame while starring in Baz Luhrmann’s “La Boheme” on Broadway, winning a Tony Award for his performance. His other credits include a nomination for a Classical Brit Award for his album “Onward” and a sell-out production of “The Merry Widow” at the London Coliseum. His future opera engagements will see Alfie return to the English National Opera to sing Nadir in a new production of “The Pearl Fishers” and also his return to the Royal Opera House in Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette”.

Matt Lucas is one of Britain’s most successful comic actors and writers. His TV credits include the multi award-winning “Little Britain”, “Shooting Stars”, BBC’s “Wind in the Willows” and most recently Tim Burton’s film of “Alice in Wonderland”. Jenny Galloway is regarded as a legendary Madame Thénardier, and has played the part many times, including the 10th Anniversary concert at the Royal Albert Hall. She has also created the roles of Rosie in “Mamma Mia!” for which she won an Olivier Award, and Mrs Brill in “Mary Poppins” both in the West End and on Broadway.

Lea Salonga will fly in from Manilla to play Fantine. She has played Eponine in London and Fantine on Broadway. She became an international star by creating the role of Kim in the original production of “Miss Saigon” at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane and subsequently on Broadway. Lea won a multitude of awards for this role, including the Olivier, Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics and Theatre World Awards. Lea will join her former “Les Miz” co-star Norm Lewis, who has just received rave reviews for “Sondheim on Sondheim” at Studio 54 in New York. Norm played Javert in the Broadway production of “Les Misérables” and his other Broadway credits include John in “Miss Saigon” and King Triton in Disney’s “The Little Mermaid”.

Nick Jonas is one third of the phenomenally successful pop music artists, the Jonas Brothers. Worldwide they have sold over 8 million albums, played to millions of fans on three continents, earned dozens of international awards and have garnered 36 gold and platinum album certificates. No stranger to “Les Miz”, Nick played the part of Gavroche for the final nine months of the show’s original Broadway run.

Camilla Kerslake is an English classical crossover singer who became the first signing to Gary Barlow’s new record label. Her debut album shot to number 4 in the Classical Album Charts and has been nominated for a Classical Brit Award. Camilla also sings the Christian hymn, “How Can I Keep from Singing?” in the 2009 Waitrose supermarket Christmas advert.
The O2 Concert will also feature the casts of the original London production (still playing to packed houses at the Queen’s Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue), the cast of the acclaimed New 25th Anniversary Production and members of the original 1985 cast. The new production, which is breaking box office records all over the UK and opening in countries all over the world will play for 20 performances only (14 September – 2 October) at the Barbican, London where the show originally premiered.

“LES MISÉRABLES” originally opened in London at the Barbican Theatre on 8 October 1985, transferred to the Palace Theatre on 4 December 1985 and moved to its current home at the Queen’s Theatre on 3 April 2004 where it continues to play to packed houses. When “LES MISÉRABLES” celebrated its 21st London birthday on 8 October 2006, it became the World?s Longest Running Musical, surpassing the record previously held by “Cats” in London’s West End. In January 2010, the West End production broke another record by celebrating an historic 10,000th performances.

Seen by over 56 million people worldwide in 42 countries and in 21 languages, “LES MISÉRABLES” is undisputedly one of the world’s most popular musicals ever written, with new productions continually opening around the globe, with seven more currently scheduled. There have been 36 cast recordings of “LES MISÉRABLES”, including the multi-platinum London cast recording, the Grammy Award-winning Broadway cast and complete symphonic albums and the soon to be released live recording of the New 25th Anniversary production. The video of the 10th Anniversary Royal Albert Hall Gala Concert has sold millions of copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling musical videos ever in the UK. There are over 2,500 productions of the Les Misérables School?s Edition scheduled or being performed by over 125,000 school children in the UK, US and Australia, making it the most successful musical ever produced in schools. Cameron Mackintosh is currently developing a film of “LES MISÉRABLES” with Working Title and Universal.

Cameron Mackintosh’s production of “LES MISÉRABLES” is written by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg and is based on the novel by Victor Hugo. It has music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer and original French text by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel and additional material by James Fenton. The original London 1985 production of “LES MISÉRABLES” was adapted and directed by Trevor Nunn and John Caird.

The New 25th Anniversary production and the O2 Concert are directed by Laurence Connor and James Powell and designed by Matt Kinley. Original costumes by Andreane Neofitou, additional costumes by Christine Rowland, lighting by Patrick Woodroffe and Paule Constable and sound by Mick Potter.

Source: Broadway World

‘The award-winning tenor talks about Bizet, wearing a wig and the origins of his exotic name

Alfie Boe and I meet in the royal retiring room at the London Coliseum and start speculating merrily about what it is the royals retire to do. Alfie is a lovely, down-to-earth Lancastrian but a bit of a royal himself in the opera world – a Tony award-winning tenor who sings like a dream. He is about to star as Nadir in Bizet’s early lyrical opera The Pearl Fishers for ENO.

But I want to quiz Alfie about his tremendous full name: Alfred Giovanni Roncalli Boe. It must have been begging him to become an opera singer. Did his parents have Italian blood? “Not at all. My mum was an Irish housewife, my dad – a process worker for ICI – was of Norwegian descent. I was named after Pope John 23rd – his last name was Roncalli.”

At 36, Alfie is fed up with his story – a fairy tale that refuses to get lost. So I’ll keep it brief. He was the youngest of nine children. As a teenager, he worked in a TVR factory in Blackpool, polishing sports cars. One day, a customer, overhearing him sing, suggested he audition for D’Oyly Carte. He got in and went on to study at the Royal College of Music and National Opera Studio.

Nadir is, he says, a “powerful role – full-on from beginning to end”. He is “fiery” and “romantic”. Alfie knows about the fire – he is sometimes angry, wanting to “do better”. But is he a romantic? “You’d have to ask my wife. I buy her flowers, take her out for meals. We say we love each other all the time.”

He sees The Pearl Fishers as a brilliant choice for ENO and as a launch to the classical music season. Opera is “for everyone”. The Pearl Fishers is often dismissed as “flouncy and far-fetched” but he describes film director Penny Woolcock’s production as “gritty”. He sees the work as exceptionally emotional: “It is what opera should be about.”

Expect then to see Alfie on stage in a football shirt (they threatened Man Utd; he is a Liverpool supporter; they settled on a generic one). And look out for his black wig. He says it is “stylish, wild and passionate”. One thing is sure: he will be letting his hair down – in every sense.

Source: The Guardian

I meet tenor Alfie Boe in his dressing room directly after a dress rehearsal of ENO’s new production of The Pearl Fishers. He’s still having his make-up removed as I arrive but once the cuts and bruises are whisked away we settle down for a comfortable conversation about the show.

He’s relaxed and chatty, despite still wearing his tattered costume, eastern sarong meets t-shirt with holes, the results of a violent denouement rather than a fashion statement. I begin by congratulating him on his recent performance in Katya Kabanova, in which his yearning and naturally easy Kudriash saw the tenor at something like his best.

“I really enjoyed doing it,” he tells me, “it was the first time I’ve worked with David (Alden) and he’s a wonderful director. If you trust in his vision and you open yourself to the ideas, you can achieve so much and really develop as an artist. When you go into the rehearsal process you don’t know what to expect and, although you have your own ideas, you can’t always rely on your own judgment. David’s very respectful to the music. I’d love to work with him again.”

“Not too traditional a production”

He’s full of praise too for the director of the Bizet, Penny Woolcock who impressed last year with her production of John Adams’ Doctor Atomic. “Penny’s fantastic. Her ideas are wonderful. It’s not too traditional a production, pink drapes and all that, but very real and gritty,” he says, “the sets are tremendous, set in a shanty town on stilts with garbage lying around. But it’s still got some mystique. I can’t wait to get onstage and get into costume, get the lights and effects and have the orchestra. That’s when a show really starts to gel for me.”

I ask him about the challenges of the high-lying lines of his part, particularly in “Je Crois Entendre Encore,” the tenor’s demanding solo aria. “It can be tricky,” he admits, “but once you’ve got it sung in, it sits really well. A lot people think it has to be sung so pianissimo, so delicate and fragile. That’s there, but there’s also a lot of passion in it.”

“It should be heard more often”

I ask if it presents problems getting the balance of power and delicacy in a house as big as the Coliseum. “Actually not,” he says, “people have the perception of the Coli being a huge barn but it lends itself to this stuff. There are great positions on stage which really help and benefit the sound. It’s a bit of a myth that you have to belt it out here. Of course, it helps to have a sympathetic conductor in the pit. In Katya we had Mark Wigglesworth and here we’ve got Rory MacDonald and they really create a big sound but are great on balance. Directors like Penny and David give tremendous support in this area too.”

It’s inevitable that we should compare the opera with Carmen, never far from the opera stage, while The Pearl Fishers, very much in its shadow, is seldom performed. I ask Alfie why he thinks that is. “Don’t ask me,” he says with a dash of Northern bluntness, “ask the people who run the opera companies. There’s wonderful music in this. The big act two duet I have with Leila is probably as close to Carmen as it gets. The music’s beautiful, so it should be heard more often,” he enthuses.

“One of the nicest leading ladies I’ve worked with”

I ask him about his co-stars. “That was Leila,” he says of an attractive young American who pokes her head into the room at that point, before withdrawing discreetly. “She’s great. We worked together in Jonathan Miller’s La bohème here last year (Hanan Alattar, the soprano in question, played Musetta). She’s lovely to be with on stage. One of the nicest leading ladies I’ve worked with.”

I get the feeling that he’s not going to say anything nasty about anyone but his enthusiasm seems genuine and he’s full of the likeable charm that comes across onstage. “Quinn Kelsey who plays Zurga is a wonderful fellow. He’s from Hawaii originally,” he adds, “it’s a small principal cast and we’re very tight-knit.”

Boe has sung the famous tenor/baritone duet from The Pearl Fishers in London in recent years, with an unlikely partner: stage star Michael Ball, in the ground-breaking Proms concert at the Albert Hall three years ago. It was maybe the strangest part of a slightly bizarre evening. “I loved that,” he says, “it was great doing it at that venue and with Michael, who’s a good friend.”

“Ego and petty squabbles”

Thankfully he brings up the subject of the disastrous ENO Kismet earlier that year, an experience he also shared with Ball, which saves me having to. “We went through hell together on that,” he confesses, “so it was nice to do the Prom soon after.” I ask him when they became aware that things were going awry with Kismet. “Day one,” he laughs, “we tried to make the best of it but there was nothing anyone could do. There was a lot of childishness and frustration and it got completely out of hand. It was all ego and petty squabbles. Best forgotten, though the show itself has loads of potential. I’d like to do it properly. It was a great shame. The best thing about it was getting the chance to work with (the late) Richard Hickox.”

I ask him what other roles he aspires to. “I’d love to do Nemorino (The Elixir of Love) and I don’t know why it hasn’t happened.” With a successful new production only recently staged by Jonathan Miller at the Coliseum, I suggest that it may happen yet. “Hopefully,” he says, “I’d also love to play Faust, Don Jose, maybe eventually Cavaradossi but you can never tell which direction your voice is going to take you.”

“I’d love to do some musicals as well”

Favourite past roles inevitably include Rodolfo (which he sang again last year for ENO and will return to in the autumn), Albert Herring (“a great role to play”) and Kudriash. He has a long list of tenors who have inspired him: Björling, Tauber, Gigli, Gedda and Carreras. “I listen to Carerras a lot and he’s very inspirational,” he tells me. “There’s so much passion in his voice. He’s a great artist. Then of course Pavarotti and Domingo.”

After The Pearl Fishers, he’ll be taking a break and going home before returning to the Royal Opera House in October to play Tybalt in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette. Then it’ll be back to the Coliseum for La bohème and The Mikado. “I’d love to do some musicals as well,” he says, “West Side Story, Les Mis, Sondheim, stuff like that. And of course I’d like to do Kismet again, but in a very different production!”

Alfie Boe will open on 1 June in Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers, which will play for 11 performances until 8 July. Full details at www.eno.org

Source: Whatsonstage