“Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.” ~Ludwig van Beethoven

By Catherine Austin Fitts

My job is to help people understand what is happening in this world – and to use that knowledge to help us have a free and inspired life. One of the benefits is that I get to take some great working vacations.

This summer’s working vacation started in August at the Santa Fe Opera where I saw Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss II. I was reminded that I have lost too much inner frivolity and need to get it back.

I then headed to Europe, returning to Lake Constance for the Bregenz Festival and a spectacular production of Bizet’s Carmen on the famous floating stage. It will be held over in 2018, so there is still time for you to see it!

Today, I drove with friends by car through the alps to Verona, Italy. The churches have a concert series: Concerti Dell’Assunta 2017.  This evening we attended the second in the series – the pipe organ concert at Chiesa di S. Fermo. As we waited on the church steps for the concert to start, I told them stories of the amazing success of the crowdfund for Dr. Farrell’s pipe organ.  Tomorrow we will attend concerts at Cattedrale – Battistero and Basilica di S. Anastasia. For a taste, here is a concert from Concerti Dell’Assunta 2016.

Tomorrow night we head for the arena in Verona to see Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.  There is no public video of this production yet, so check out my favorite Beethoven flashmob of the Ode to Joy from the 9th Symphony performed in Spain in 2012.

But wait – there’s more! A year of such beautiful music would not be complete without my old haunt, the Metropolitan Opera in New York. I have tickets for Les Contes d’Hoffmann and La Bohème in October.

If you are interested in trying opera, the Metropolitan transmits to over 2,000 theaters in 70 countries.  Can’t hurt to try – after all, it is a free and inspired life!