Reminiscing About Opera and Madrigals

A musician I used to sing and perform with passed away yesterday.

 Dr. Blaine Edlefsen.

Blaine was a professor of music at the University of Illinois and the principle oboist for the Champaign-Urbana Symphony. He could "circular breathe" while he played - breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth at the same time. (Try as I might, I never was able to do that, even without an oboe reed in my mouth.)

I met him at church where he led the music in Sacrament meeting for years. At that time, there was a core group of strong musicians in the ward, many of whom were working on their Doctorate of Musical Arts at the university.

Charis Duke, also an oboist and a composer, decided to form an octet of singers to do madrigals, opera, and sing at churches in the Champaign/Urbana area. To my surprise, I was invited to join the group.

I was thrilled to be asked to sing with them, but also very intimidated - I was the only non-professional musician in the group. The musicianship of the others and the level of music which we performed was at the highest level, and I had to work HARD to keep up. The result, though, was that my own musicianship grew by leaps and bounds. I kept up, but just barely.

Our octet consisted of:

 Charis Duke. She lives in Philadelphia and composes operas, chamber music, and other pieces. She is also an accomplished cellist, oboist, pianist, and organist. We've been friends now for about twenty-five years.

David Duke, Charis' husband who received a DMA in opera from the University of Illinois. He is a Heldentenor and has a rich, mellow voice. He was a finalist for the New York Metropolitan Opera's program for new talent. He sings in off-Broadway productions up and down the east coast.

Robert Nakea, a concert pianist who received his DMA from the University of Illinois. Robert is from Hawaii and a teddy bear of a man. The Osmond family hired Robert  to teach piano to their kids when he was a student at BYU, and Kyle was lucky enough to study with Robert, too. While his expertise is the piano, Robert also has a lovely bass and sang that role in our group.

Cindy Nakea, Robert's wife, and a lyric soprano/opera singer as well as my voice teacher. I was a stay-at-home mom at the time with no extra money for voice lessons, and Cindy needed a wardrobe as she and Robert were going on a concert tour of Italy and Europe for the summer. In exchange for voice lessons, I sewed her wardrobe for those performances.

Jill Peper, concert pianist. Jill's degree was from Penn State, but Randy was on faculty at the U of I in the College of Veterinary Medicine and that brought them to the area. Jill sang alto in our group - her musicianship was as top notch as the rest of them!

Our group sang together for about four years, and in that time we put on two operas and many concerts. The biggest musician-compliment I have ever gotten was when Charis wrote an opera for us to perform, and asked me to sing the role of Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. She told me she had written the role for my voice, which is (or was; it's been a few years since I sang!) more on the coluratura side than lyric soprano. I'd never had a piece written specifically for me to perform, and I doubt I ever will, so that music is very special to me.

(Coloratura refers to a type of music - very high, full of trills and runs, or a very high soprano voice that is light and airy, and can quickly touch on the notes. Here is an example of a coloratura piece sung by the Queen of the Night in the opera The Magic Flute: 

When my voice was at its best, I had a high E-flat above C.)

The opera, The Innkeeper's Wife, had an aria for Mary to sing with a high B-flat. I sweated that note, but I hit it in all the rehearsals and in both performances. (Don't think I could now!) Blaine sang the role of Joseph, and in one scene we wended our way through the audience, singing a duet together as we made our way to Bethlehem and the stage. (Jessica and Cole also were in that opera with me - what a treat!)

Blaine sang with Jessica in Amahl and the Night Visitors - Jessie performed the role of Amahl and Blaine the role of the wise man who carries the treasure box and has his finger bitten by the parrot.

Good memories, of friends who taught me so much, and of a time when I had a golden opportunity to work with an incredibly talented group of musicians.