"A fascinating travelogue of Daron Hagen's journey from composer/librettist/conductor to composer/librettist/conductor/director, from lyric theatre to operafilm . The terminus of the ten-year expedition is Hagen's Bardo Trilogy , three operafilms in which the visual, musical, textual and staging ideas are generated simultaneously by Hagen and then directed and film edited by him. He navigates using an encyclopedic knowledge of masters and masterpieces in fields ranging from cinematography to theology to psychology to music theory and across centuries from ancient to (post-?) modern. The writing manifests a deep understanding and humble respect for those who have journeyed before or with him in a quest to understand the ways in which art helps us discover personal truths and grapple with the universal mysteries that pulse in all our hearts. Hagen's boundless imagination and insatiable curiosity--so evident in all of his music--leap from every page of Exploring Operafilm ."--Rudy Marcozzi, professor and dean emeritus, Chicago College of Performing Arts, Roosevelt University.