{"id":89,"date":"2018-06-05T08:49:37","date_gmt":"2018-06-05T07:49:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alphonso.info\/?page_id=89"},"modified":"2020-08-26T12:14:23","modified_gmt":"2020-08-26T11:14:23","slug":"about-alphonso","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.alphonso.info\/?page_id=89","title":{"rendered":"About Alphonso"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Who was <em>Alphonso<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Alphonso Spagoni is the mythical toreador who stole the heart of Billy Merson\u2019s fianc\u00e9e while he had gone to \u2018buy some nuts and a programme\u2019 at the bullring. He is the subject of Merson\u2019s most enduring song <em>\u201cThe Spaniard that Blighted my Life\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.alphonso.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Alphonso031_50.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-160\" src=\"http:\/\/www.alphonso.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Alphonso031_50-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.alphonso.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Alphonso031_50-200x300.jpg 200w, http:\/\/www.alphonso.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Alphonso031_50-768x1152.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.alphonso.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Alphonso031_50-683x1024.jpg 683w, http:\/\/www.alphonso.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Alphonso031_50.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Possibly he was inspired by Bizet\u2019s opera \u2018<em>Carmen\u2019,\u00a0<\/em>in which the soldier Don Jose loses his fiery lover Carmen to the glamorous matador Escamillo. Enrico Caruso, the Italian tenor had played Don Jose at Covent Garden in 1904 and sang there regularly for a decade. The music hall fraternity were not above sending up opera. Wilkie Bard had great success with the song <em>\u2018I Want to Sing in Opera\u2019 <\/em>(1910). It contained the immortal line \u2018Signor Caruso told me I ought to do so\u2019 and audiences loved it.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>At exactly this time Merson had been cast as \u2018Idle Jack\u2019 in <em>\u2018Dick Whittington\u2019\u00a0<\/em>at the Theatre Royal, Brighton. He wanted \u2018something dashing, Spanish and semi-operatic\u2019 for his duet with the principal girl, Beatrice Allen, and decided to write something himself. He suddenly got an idea for the song, jotted down the words, hummed the melody \u2013 and the rest is history.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Originally written for the pantomime as \u2018If I Catch Alphonso Tonight\u2019, he later turned it into a solo number \u2018The Spaniard that Blighted my Life\u2019. It was a phenomenal success in the halls and took his earnings from \u00a36 to \u00a3125 a week. Many others have performed it since \u2013 and continue to do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Who was Alphonso? Alphonso Spagoni is the mythical toreador who stole the heart of Billy Merson\u2019s fianc\u00e9e while he had gone to \u2018buy some nuts and a programme\u2019 at the bullring. He is the subject of Merson\u2019s most enduring song \u201cThe Spaniard that Blighted my Life\u201d. &nbsp; Possibly he was inspired by Bizet\u2019s opera \u2018Carmen\u2019,\u00a0in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-89","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>About Alphonso - Alphonso<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Alphonso Spagoni is the mythical toreador who stole the heart of Billy Merson\u2019s fianc\u00e9e while he had gone to \u2018buy some nuts and a programme\u2019 at the bullring. 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