Polachek had told me that Kuhn, her opera teacher, sometimes made her sing bent over, with her hands on her knees, as if her voice were spilling the notes out violently onto the floor. Kuhn told me later, “I’ve seen her at her weakest. I’ve seen her underbelly. I would say to her, over and over, that the great artists are the ones who have the ability to get to a raw sound, who can let the idea of perfection go for a moment and give us a direct line into their soul.”