Alfie Part Deux

Inigo.

Born under a lucky star, I guess.

I wonder how it would feel to actually be him.

We went to our second Alfie Boe concert last night. This time we decided we'd try to sit closer to the front. Since the concert was open seating, as soon as the doors to the recital hall were opened, we rushed in and grabbed seats in the middle of the third row.

(Really, in this recital hall, there are no bad seats. The venue is small enough that you can sit on the back row and still see the performer's face. So even though we sat in the back on Wednesday night, we weren't disappointed.)

But.... the perspective from being this close is completely different. We were close enough to see the sparkle in Mr. Boe's eye; a clearer view of the emotion on his face. Our eyes could actually meet and he could actually see me hold my camera up.

And he could actually see Inigo sitting between Max and I. Inigo who had been fighting a headache and was a little tired and who looked a little zoned out.

So after Alfie sang his third song, he looked out into the audience and said, "Is that your son?"

Ummm.... wait.... are you talking to US?!?!?

Apparently, he was!

He had noticed Inigo and thought that our boy was totally bored out of his mind. He didn't know that after the first song, Inigo turned to me and said,

"Mom, this is AWESOME!"

He bantered back and forth with Max for a moment, much to the delight of the 700 people in the audience. (Alfie Boe has a great sense of humor and is a genuinely NICE person.) He made sure to tell Max that Inigo "looks like a nice chap and you need to make sure to take him out for a burger and fries after this is over." Max said he thought a piece of pie would be better! :)

He went on to sing another song and noticed another little girl, about Inigo's age, sitting on the front row that was displaying the same lethargic attitude. He promised her that the next song he was going to sing would wake her up a little more. She then stuck her tongue out at him and... believe it or not... he stuck his back out at her.

(In defense of these kids, however, the first half of the concert was in Italian. Of course they're not going to show a lot of enthusiasm!)

After finishing the first half of the program, Mr. Boe and the Sinfonietta left the stage for intermission. The audience was standing up to stretch and chat with their neighbors about the wonderful program we were enjoying. A very few left for a potty break. We looked up at the stage and the girl who said the prayer at the beginning of the concert walked out carrying a microphone.

She announced, "I'd like to have the little boy in the middle of row three come up on stage. Alfie Boe has a little gift for you."

She was carrying a handful of candy bars.

Again, the audience roared. Again, we were stunned. My boy was in the spotlight again!!

She may have said something else, I don't remember. I just remember Inigo scrambling to get out of the row, everyone standing up to let him by; patting him on the back; smiling at him. I remember Inigo not being scared at all to stand on stage and say his name into the microphone. We all laughed when she asked him what his favorite song so far was and he stood there shrugging his shoulders... Duh! It was all in Italian! (Although, now he would say it was O Sole Mio.)

She also had some candy for the little girl on the front row, but for some reason she wasn't invited on the stage.

Inigo was pretty stoked. He got a Heath Bar, some Swiss chocolate and a couple of locally made candy bars.

After intermission was over and Alfie walked back on stage, he looked at Inigo. Inigo gave him a thumbs up. Alfie quickly returned the signal with a warm smile and those sparkly eyes.

The second half of the concert was Show Tunes and it was so fun to listen to him sing.

However, when he was singing On The Street Where You Live, he messed up the lyrics! It was hilarious. And the great thing was that he laughed about it, which made us all laugh about it without feeling bad. (You'll see it in the video.)

Another funny moment in the concert was during the second half: He was getting ready to sing one of the Broadway songs and the Sinfonietta had started playing the intro. It was just about time for him to start singing and he says into the mic, "Stop! Stop! I'm sorry! I just noticed that there is a woman out there who wants to take my picture and we can't let a moment like that pass by." (NO....it wasn't me! Amazing, eh?)

So he walked out on the stage and posed and let her take the picture. (Of course I wasn't going to let that moment pass me by either!) After the pose, he went back to the mic and wowed us some more with his amazing voice.

Having Alfie notice Inigo was the most amazing thing of the night. The second most amazing thing was at the end of the show, when he sang Bring Me Home. Since we were sitting so close, we could really see and feel the emotion of the song. Many members of the audience were wiping tears from their eyes as he sang and we noticed that Alfie's eyes were rimming with tears as well. It was simply amazing and breath taking.

I wish I had the money to fly across the pond to London where I could see him play the part of Jean Valjean. Inigo has expressed that wish as well.

Who knows? Inigo seems lucky enough. Maybe if I let him buy a lottery ticket.....

I put a bunch of clips together of some of the songs he sang. The first song, O Sole Mio was Inigo and my favorite of the Italian songs. I got nervous videoing though, so turned it off in the middle. The rest of the songs were videoed on my knee. You can't see Alfie very well, but you can hear him. And that's what's important, isn't it?
Oh, and I'm still learning how to edit videos together. I have a long way to go. :)

(Notice that on about second 25, he looks directly at me! Eeek!)