Alfie by Alfie Boe

Author:Alfie Boe [Boe, Alfie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781849839778
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK

Chapter Eighteen

PINCHING MYSELF

I had to really turn everything around over the summer. And Albert Herring really built up my confidence again because I threw myself out there, used all the emotion that had been coursing through me, and it paid off.

Britten premièred Albert Herring in Glyndebourne in the 1940s. The title character’s a young kid who’s governed by everybody and he bows down to them all. Bosses demean him and he’s very humble about everything, quite an unassuming guy. He’s under the thumb, he does what he’s told, and he gets humiliated, because the villagers can’t find a suitable woman to play Queen of the May for the May Day festival, so they choose Albert instead. I related to him at the time – I couldn’t answer back, I didn’t say what I’d wanted to say, I’d sucked it up, I’d shut up and retreated. He’s even given Foxe’s Book of Martyrs at one point, the book my mum used to read to me in bed. The nightmare machine, my old nemesis. It’s supposed to be a comedy, Albert Herring, but it’s quite an emotional one to play, it certainly was for me, and I took full advantage of my state of mind to do it. Saying that, I also based him on David Jason as Granville from Open All Hours and Pike from Dad’s Army.

We performed Albert Herring in August, seven shows, and I pulled it out of the bag. I got a standing ovation every night, got great reviews and won the John Christie award. John Christie started the Glyndebourne festival in the 1930s and died in 1962, and good old Richard Van Allan won the John Christie award in 1966. So I was really chuffed to win that, it was a big honour and meant a lot to me. And it was one of the best productions I ever did, I really loved it. La Bohème on Broadway, Les Misérables in the West End, and Albert Herring at Glyndebourne – those are the productions that changed my life. My last performance went down a storm because I was so adrenalised, so excited to be leaving for America the following day, I was on fire. The whole thing was something of a slap in the face for the Vilar people – I’d left their programme, done a major operatic festival, got outstanding reviews and won the John Christie award. Although even some people at Glyndebourne were saying, ‘Why are you doing this La Bohème on Broadway?’ Why not? That was always my answer. ‘Why not?’ They’d say it was a controversial production. I’d say, ‘What’s controversial about it?’ And they could never answer because they didn’t know. I think it was just because it was on Broadway. There was nothing different about the opera, it was in Italian, it was the full score, we hadn’t cut anything out.

The morning after my last Albert Herring show off I flew to New York for our first music rehearsals. A friend

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