The cutting-edge, genre-of-one jazz-metal opera La Suspendida has a story behind it – in every sense. The opera is based on a notorious incident in history: a doctor in Florida obsessed on a patient even after her death, keeping her corpse as his wife for years before he was finally compelled to bury her. However, the drama is centered on her story as a character who is both alive and dead – “suspended,” in a sense. The opera’s libretto and a fictionalization with historical background are included here. But so is the story behind the opera – how a group of very different people came together to write this, and some of the many ideas and issues at stake in the work’s creation.