A couple of years ago, I read a scholarly article written by an academic who had done extensive research on real-life artists and their muses.  Most of these relationships blew up in a spectacular way, usually after the muse relationship had become a romantic one.  Apparently, the successful artist-muse relationship requires a degree of emotional separation to be sustained.  The muse is best admired from a distance.

I decided to write a song to explore these themes, but it quickly evolved into an overly complex and sad mess.  My original themes in the song might make a good 3-act musical or opera, but it is hard to spin such a complex narrative into one song.  And so, with the considerable assistance of Rachel Efron, I modified my original lyrics and turned them into one song for the opera - the artist-songwriter’s statement of remorse and frustration over losing his muse and his ability to create.  Let me know if you’d like to hear the full opera.