Alfie Boe

Alfred Giovanni Roncalli Boe (born 29 September 1973) is an English actor and singer who performs primarily in musical theatre.

In 1999 and 2000, he was featured as the "opera dude" on albums by the Clint Boon Experience, led by the former organist of the Inspiral Carpets.

In 1999 he sang Ernesto for Scottish Opera in their Opera-Go-Round production of Don Pasquale, touring widely throughout Scotland.

Baz Luhrmann, who had spent two years looking for the lead for his Broadway production of La bohème, approached Boe for the role.

Boe shared a Tony Award with the other members of the ensemble cast of Baz Luhrmann's 2002 revival of La bohème in 2003.

He has sold more than one million albums in the United Kingdom.

One of his most recent performances include Together in Vegas (with Michael Ball).

In October 2022 he announced that he would be doing a solo tour in 2023.

Boe, the youngest in a family of nine children, was born in Blackpool, Lancashire, and brought up in nearby Fleetwood.

He is of Irish and Norwegian descent.

His mother and father named him after the Italian name of Pope John XXIII.

He attended St Wulstan's and St Edmund's School and Cardinal Allen Catholic High School in Fleetwood.

His earliest musical memories were of listening to his father's Richard Tauber records and he discovered Puccini's La bohème for the first time.

Boe performed in public for the first time at the age of 14 at Fleetwood's Marine Hall in a "Songs from the Shows" presentation organised by a local singing teacher Lottie Dawson.

At the age of 17, Boe became an apprentice mechanic at the TVR factory in Bispham, Blackpool.

He enjoyed entertaining his colleagues by singing opera arias while he polished the cars, and one day was overheard by a client with connections in the music industry who was so impressed that he suggested Boe should go to London and audition for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.

His audition was successful and he gave up polishing cars to embark on a singing career.

Boe has not been able to trace the customer who suggested he go for the audition, having lost the man's business card.

Boe moved to London and studied singing at the Royal College of Music, the National Opera Studio and the Royal Opera House's Vilar Young Artists Programme.

Boe subsequently appeared (credited as Alfred Boe) on the 2002 Broadway Cast Recording released by Bazmark Live.

Boe and the other principal leads received the Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre in 2003.

He has also sung the role at Glyndebourne and the English National Opera.

In 2006, Boe was signed to the Classic FM Presents label as their first signing in a new venture for the radio station, and his album Classic FM Presents Alfie Boe reached number three in the UK classical chart.

At the 2006 Canterbury Festival, on 27 October, Boe performed with soprano Hayley Westenra at a concert in Canterbury Cathedral.

In November 2006 he was signed to the EMI Classics label and his first album on that label, Onward, was released in March 2007.

Boe toured the United Kingdom with the Fron Male Voice Choir in February 2007 and took part in the first Classic FM webcast concert with soprano Natasha Marsh in March.

The same month, he was appointed as an ambassador of the Prince of Wales Arts & Kids Foundation, a British educational charity working to inspire and educate children by introducing them to the arts.

Boe's role being to bring music, and opera in particular for those children involved.

In April, Boe starred opposite Lesley Garrett and Willard White in the ITV Music of Morse concert at the Royal Albert Hall.

He was also nominated for a Classical BRIT for Best Album, missing out to Paul McCartney at the ceremony on 3 May 2007.

Boe performed with Michael Ball in the English National Opera production of Kismet.

His live performance of the song "Stranger in Paradise" from Kismet on the Michael Parkinson show was released as a download single on 25 June 2007.

In August, Boe realised an ambition to record an album of Neapolitan songs which was released in November under the title La Passione.

On 24 August 2007 he performed at the Arundel Festival alongside Natasha Marsh.

On 19 October 2007 he performed at Canterbury Cathedral during the Canterbury Festival.

Boe performed at the annual Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall on 10 November 2007.

On 31 January 2008, Boe performed at the Pleasure Beach Arena, Blackpool to more than 1,600 local children in a special Music Quest concert to introduce the classics to a new generation.

The concert celebrated the end of the Music Quest three-year project, which was sponsored by the Prince of Wales Arts & Kids Foundation and Classic FM MusicMakers.

He is best known for his performances as Jean Valjean in the musical Les Misérables at the Queen's Theatre in London, the 25th Anniversary Concert, the 2014 Broadway revival, the All-Star Staged Concert, and is set to reprise the role in the Arena Spectacular World Tour.

He played the lead role in Finding Neverland on Broadway beginning 29 March 2016.