23 replies to this topic

[euripides]

SHk, on 15 December 2011 - 11:21 PM, said:

Ah, that thing. I didn't know those are for lyrics though. Thank you again for telling me.

I am with you about being annoyed that Alfie totally relied on it. He should have learned his words before going on a NATIONAL tour.  This is again, a sever lack of commitment from him, just like when he was so often abscent from Les Miz.  

It just makes me sad that some singers think they can get away with such poor delivery only because they are heavily promoted and therefore have become quite well-known.  It's just an insult to those other talented but less promoted and  harder working singers/actors. Really bad for the artistic standards of the UK show-biz.

But it was good to know that Kelly gave a much better concert. I don't know much about her, but I remember Mark Shenton giving her gig a rave review too.

As someone who wasn't even there I think you're setting a lot of (too much?) store on one person's account. I haven't read any other comments or reviews which suggest that Alfie Boe "totally relied" on an autocue. I attended the first night of the tour and he certainly wasn't using one then. Nor have I seen any evidence of him doing so in any of the youtube clips of subsequent performances. Why not check them out for yourself if you're that interested? If you can find a clip where he is blatantly getting his lyrics from a teleprompter, then please do post a link and I'll stand corrected....

Or maybe you're just happy to have your pre-conceived notions confirmed, hence your assertion that AB 'lacks commitment' and your insinuation that he insults other performers by being a lazy shirker in comparison? There's an undercurrent of prejudice in your comments which robs them of a certain amount of credibility.  

And I'm puzzled why you say it's "good to know" that Kerry(!) gave a much better concert. What does that have to do with anything if you don't know much about her?

[SHk]

euripides, on 17 December 2011 - 09:20 AM, said:

As someone who wasn't even there I think you're setting a lot of (too much?) store on one person's account. I haven't read any other comments or reviews which suggest that Alfie Boe "totally relied" on an autocue. I attended the first night of the tour and he certainly wasn't using one then. Nor have I seen any evidence of him doing so in any of the youtube clips of subsequent performances. Why not check them out for yourself if you're that interested? If you can find a clip where he is blatantly getting his lyrics from a teleprompter, then please do post a link and I'll stand corrected....

Or maybe you're just happy to have your pre-conceived notions confirmed, hence your assertion that AB 'lacks commitment' and your insinuation that he insults other performers by being a lazy shirker in comparison? There's an undercurrent of prejudice in your comments which robs them of a certain amount of credibility.  

And I'm puzzled why you say it's "good to know" that Kerry(!) gave a much better concert. What does that have to do with anything if you don't know much about her?

Hello,

Yes, I was imagining that Alfie relied heavily on autocue because that was what Poster J, the only person who kindly gave a detailed account of this concert, informed me. You could have answered my question too, you, know.  But you haven't done so until now.  And your account is equally welcome.  

The reason I asked the question " Was it as bad as The Times! say? was simply because what was written in that reveiw was really quite dismal, and I wanted to know if it was really that bad.  In other words, I was intrigued by the "badness" the reveiw described.  It goes like this:

"Still marketed very much as the lad who prefers to do it his way, Boe is serving up a long evening of, well, the same old songs: from the shows, from the silver secreen, from yesteryear. Of course, there's more money, more adulation and a lot less work involved in this than in learning and developing long and testing operatic roles.  Crooning your way through the tracks on your latest album, over and over again, must be irressitible, especially with a mike to hold on to.

_____And more of the same, all sung in the same way - from hushed and throaty to loud, very loud and pounding into applause.

__________If this wasn't enough to turn the stomach and chill the blood, there was the embarassingly slack banter which really will have to be brushed up. "

See my point? Wouldn't this review make you wonder if it really was this bad?  It's not about Jetward or whoever they are, but about a good professional singer.

Anyway, my another point wasn't just about Alfie, I said it depresses me when properly trained and/or well-known singer/actors just take advantage of their name value and deliver a low-quality show.  Not just Alfie.  Mentioning Kerry (not Kelly??) was just an example of big names (but in a good way). That was all. I remember Ruthie Hanshall's concert at the RFH a while ago. It fell into this category - it  was packed as she is a name on TV, but the show itself was below par, considering what she is capable of.

[poster J]

euripides, on 17 December 2011 - 09:20 AM, said:

As someone who wasn't even there I think you're setting a lot of (too much?) store on one person's account. I haven't read any other comments or reviews which suggest that Alfie Boe "totally relied" on an autocue. I attended the first night of the tour and he certainly wasn't using one then. Nor have I seen any evidence of him doing so in any of the youtube clips of subsequent performances. Why not check them out for yourself if you're that interested? If you can find a clip where he is blatantly getting his lyrics from a teleprompter, then please do post a link and I'll stand corrected....

The two teleprompters were very visible from the angles the cinema cameras were at (to the point that they were frequently in shot and you could see the lyrics scrolling down them).  I'm not suggesting he didn't know his words, but he did keep glancing down at where they were between practically every line, and that there were two of them, one each side of his microphone, shocked me.  All of his in-between songs chat seemed unscripted though.  Perhaps it was due to nerves, I don't know, but from the angle of viewing watching in the cinema it was quite irritating.

The banter wasn't good, I agree with the Times reviewer on that point, but as I said, it wasn't as bad as that review made out.  Some of the duets didn't work, the timing of his support singer's sets was a bit weird, the finale was unsuccessful (although he's a good drummer!) and overall I was underwhelmed.

I compared it with Kerry Ellis' show because I was there, and because she didn't use a teleprompter at all.  Maybe the atmosphere in the room does make a difference, as I've also seen her give a less impressive show at a different venue with a lacklustre crowd, but nevertheless I thought her show both times was far superior.

[Meirion]

He doesn't use a teleprompter on the normal tour dates- what he does use though is a folder on a music stand which has the words for all the songs in it. He looked at it all night. It looked a bit unprofessional having that right in front of him and agree with others he should have learnt his words. A teleprompter would have been more discrete.

I did however really enjoyed his show- his vocals were great and he was very entertaining - I am seeing the tour again next month so hopefully he will have learnt his words by then!