Set in the American Midwest, Perfect Lives is “about” bank robbery, cocktail lounges, geriatric love, adolescent elopement, the changing of the light at sundown, et al. One of the definitive text-sound compositions of the late 20th century, it has been called "the most influential music/theater/literary work of the 1980s".

Perfect Lives es una "ópera televisiva" en la que el compositor Robert Ashley presenta un colorista abanico de sucesos que tienen como elemento común el vínculo entre dos personajes, un cantante y un pianista.