**Dear Reader, I hope you enjoy this article. - Vitaliy**
Oil is by my father, Naum Katsenelson
London Value Conference Presentation (Q&A)
I had the pleasure of speaking at the London Value Conference
, which was a terrific, first-rate event.
I did not make a formal presentation; instead I did Q&A with my friend,
the wonderful David Shapiro.
On the morning of the conference (which happened to be midnight in
Denver), I found I had a hard time waking up. I went for a long walk -
it didn't help. So I drank six cups of coffee, which did wake me up,
eventually. But it also made me a bit jumpier than usual, so that I
could not list all of the Six Commandments of Value Investing.
But don't you worry, we
created an eight-part email series that walks you through them, or you
can download our brochure and
read them there.
You can watch Q&A session here:
http://contrarianedge.acemlnb.com/lt.php?s=57dbe3454bfb73d1c343855bbc5bc44f&i=309A356A0A3083
I hope you enjoy it.
We are back from Laguna Beach. After every family vacation I ask myself
what is the single most enduring memory I'm taking away from the trip.
For me it was not Lego Land or whale watching, though both were a lot of
fun. (Lego Land is, however, better for a four-year-old and doesn't have
much to offer for a 12- and a 17-year-old).
I discovered that my favorite thing in the world to do is to walk on the
beach early in the morning - and so I bribed my kids with Starbucks'
sugary drinks so they would get up at 7 am and walk with me. The town
was still asleep, just a few people out walking their dogs or running;
the beach was mostly empty. Ocean waves have a very random rhythm, but
one thing you know: There is always going to be a next wave. Ocean waves
have an incredible therapeutic quality. They remind you that the ocean
has been there for billions of years and will be there for billions
more, but we are transient speckles of sand on this world. Make the best
of your time here.
My 12-year-old daughter Hannah and I have a new routine: We read
together. In Laguna Beach we'd sit on the beach and read for hours and
hours. We'd come to the beach in the evening when the sun was going
down, bringing our chairs and towels (using them as blankets), and read
until it got too cold or too dark.
Each of us was in our own (book) world, but at the same time this
physical proximity brought us closer. Back in Denver now, we still read
together. On Saturday we sat on the backyard. During the week I took a
few half-days off, and we went to Cherry Creek Park (a beautiful park
with a lake), sat on the beach, and read. Hannah is somewhat addicted to
reading. A month ago, after watching a Mark Cuban interview where he
talked about paying his kids to read, I offered to pay her $10 for every
200-300-page book she reads. I doubt this offer made a difference, but
she is reading nonstop and I owe her $70. Probably the best $70 I ever
spent.
I really enjoyed speaking with Pepperdine University students. I am
going to try to do these Q&A-like talks with students at different
universities around the country.
I am off to VALUEx Vail conference this week
- 24 presentations in three days, wine, time with friends (and family
- family members are invited to join us for daily activities),
mountain biking, walks. I am all fired up.
Drawing is by my brother Alex Katsenelson
Tosca - Te Deum
Today I want to share with you an aria from the opera
**Tosca**, composed by Giacomo Puccini. The aria I am sharing, "Te
Deum," is not the most popular one, but it is one of my favorites. In
addition to the music of the orchestra and the remarkable baritone voice
of the character Scarpia, Puccini packed this aria with organ, choir,
and the background sound of church bells, creating an incredibly rich,
powerful sound.
And then there is emotion. We feel it most strongly in the singing of
Scarpia, who plays the chief of police, the villain of the story. He is
in love with Tosca, but to get Tosca he needs to send her lover,
Cavaradossi, who is hiding from the law, to face a firing squad. You see
the duality of Scarpia: an evil mastermind but also a soul tortured by
unrequited love for Tosca. The last words of Scarpia in this aria are
those of a tortured soul: "Tosca, you make me forget God." We see all
the evil that may be caused by misguided love. Do we hate Scarpia a
little bit less once we understand him?
According to the American baritone Cornell MacNeil
, who sang this opera over
eight hundred times, "When you put together interpretation, action,
acting, movement, custom, the attitude, and the voice... it is
tremendous. It is the most demanding role."
Who is your favorite Scarpia? We are lucky that there are a lot of great
performances of
**Tosca** and this ar1a - after all, Tosca is one of the
most-performed operas. It is right up there with
**La Boheme, Carmen,** and
**La Traviata.**
The Ruggero Raimondi performance
adds a visual dimension to
the opera: It is beautifully filmed. Also, if your Italian is rusty, it
has subtitles. Watch this version
of the aria to gain a
visual overview of the whole opera.
The performance of "Te Deum" by Evgeny (Zhenya) Nikitin
is very special to me
because he was my childhood friend. Zhenya grew up in Murmansk, and we
were in the same class until eighth grade (at the time Russia had a
ten-grade system). We lost touch when I left school for technical
college (the Murmansk Marine College). Zhenya completed his training at
the St. Petersburg Conservatory, and in 2002 he debuted at the
Metropolitan Opera. I am biased, but his interpretation of Scarpia is
one of my favorites.
Dmitri Hvorostovsky , who
also sang the role beautifully, was a Russian (post-Soviet) opera
superstar. He sadly passed away in 2017 at the age of 55. In 2015, when
he was diagnosed with a brain tumor, he canceled all his performances;
but he could not stay away from the Met and Anna Netrebko, and he
travelled to New York to give his last three performances in Verdi's
**Il Travatore.**
Click here to listen
**Vitaliy Katsenelson, CFA**
Student of Life
I am the CEO at IMA, which is anything but your average investment firm.
(Why? Get our company brochure here
, or simply visit our website
).
In a brief moment of senility, Forbes magazine called me "the new
Benjamin Graham."
I've written two books on investing, which
were published by John Wiley & Sons and have been translated into eight
languages. (I'm working on a third - you can read a chapter from it,
titled "The 6 Commandments of Value Investing" here
).
And if you prefer listening, audio versions of my articles are published
weekly at investor.fm .
Not receiving my investment articles? Sign up here
.
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