HIGHER AND LONGER
Many times in my life, I feel that the only way to get my point across is with a high-pitched note sustained for as long as I am capable. Farinelli understood the problem.
There is a scene in Farinelli in which he is performing an Aria from Dario by Riccardo Broshci, and the audience is captivated, as am I, except for one woman, the Countess of Mauer, who is sitting in her box drinking tea and reading a book, which I have to admit I find rather impressive because there is a certain audacity in deciding that a famous castrato singing his heart out in front of you is the perfect time to catch up on your reading.
What Farinelli does next is holding the note hostage until he has her attention. I understand this completely because sometimes I explain something once, twice, three times, using perfectly ordinary words, and the message still refuses to arrive at its destination, so what is left but a high note, preferably in tune, held for as long as necessary until everyone in the room understands that something is being said?
As a teacher, there were days where explaining myself for the fourth time began to feel like an unreasonable amount of work for something that should have been understood the first three times.
But I have spent enough time with human beings to know that volume and duration occasionally accomplish what reason cannot. Although, Farinelli has one significant advantage over me, he can make his point in perfect pitch, whereas I just have to find some other way to make mine, even if it is just in my imagination.