American librettist Gene Scheer has written the text for composer Tobias Picker’s An American Tragedy for the Metropolitan Opera and Thérèse Raquin for The Dallas Opera. With composer Jake Heggie he has written the text for Three Decembers for Houston Grand Opera and San Francisco Opera, the lyric drama To Hell and Back as well as a number of song cycles and For a Look or a Touch. Other notable collaborations include lyrics for Wynton Marsalis’s It Never Goes Away and the oratorio August 4, 1964 for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. As a composer he has written a number of songs for singers such as Renée Fleming, Sylvia McNair, Stephanie Blythe, Denyce Graves and Nathan Gunn.