Independent Classical podcast: Alfie Boe

We're backstage at the London Coliseum during the first stage and make-up rehearsals for ENO's new production of Bizet's The Pearl Fishers.

Edward Seckerson dodges the traffic in Alfie Boe's dressing room to chew over the young lyric tenor's chequered career to date, including his stint on Broadway in Baz Luhrmann's production of La Boheme and his ensuing flirtations with operatic pop stardom. Alfie has a natural ability to inhabit the many different styles of music theatre and can be as engaging in comic Viennese operetta (his recent album of operetta bon-bons suggested he could become a matinee idol at the Vienna Volksoper) as he is endearing in Britten's Albert Herring or vibrant and impassioned as Kudrjas in Janacek's Katya Kabanova.

The work ethic comes from his Northern upbringing and the days spent soaking up his father's LP collection of golden age tenors. Just as well he turned out to be one. He still reveres Richard Tauber and Beniamino Gigli and, most of all, Jose Carreras for his "very special timbre". Alfie has the dubious distinction of having sung the Pearl Fishers duet with Michael Ball (LOL) at Ball's Prom a couple of years back and he talks darkly and mysteriously of a possible encounter with the role of Jean Valjean in Les Miserables. Could there be a concert performance in the offing this summer? Will Matt Lucas be Thenadier? And might a stint at London's Queen's Theatre be on the cards? I couldn't possibly comment....

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