“Jon Deak is listed both as ‘Himself’ and as ‘Composer’ in the closing credits to this film. This points to the film’s greatest strength: It is more than a filmed performance of Deak’s opera. Rather, H. Paul Moon frames the performance within a meditation on the nature of composition and on the identification of creator and creation. There are some lovely thoughts in this filmic frame. I am particularly touched by the idea that the performer transfers the composer’s emotional burdens to himself by performing the composer’s work.”