Rufus Wainwright has written an opera ('Prima Donna'), recreated one of music's most famous vocal performances (Judy Garland's 'Judy at Carnegie Hall') and shared a stage with U2, Courtney Love and more. With those accomplishments, you'd think a piano and vocal record would be a breeze for the singer-songwriter. "I'm recording my next album, which is a solo piano/voice record and it's oddly enough turning out to be the most difficult thing I've ever done, especially after hiding behind a 70-piece orchestra with my opera where you can blame everything on the tuba player," Wainwright tells Spinner.

Why is that? "When I say difficult, I mean challenging and exciting and exhilarating," he says. "I'm enjoying it fully, but it's just very intense and naked. It's just my fingers and my voice and an instrument, so there's no real curtain in front of the Wizard."

Wainwright has already started to share some of the new album live, including 'Who Are You New York,' which he says is his ode to the city. "It's sort of my reply to 'I'm So Tired of America' or 'Going to a Town,'" he says. "It's my positive America song." Another new track is 'Zebulon,' about "A high school sweetheart." He'll also get literate, including three Shakespeare sonnets from a play he did with director Robert Wilson that's now running in Berlin.

Even with some of the challenges he's taken on in the past, was he hesitant about tackling the guy many call the greatest writer ever? "Yeah, on one hand it was certainly daunting and I'm not sure if I succeeded every time with what I did," he says. "But that being said, I was very, very proud of most of it, of pretty much all of it."

"What I'm trying to say, trying to be humble here, but putting the humility aside for a second, there was a tremendous affinity between William and I working together on this project," he continues, laughing. "In all honesty, his sonnets are so well-written and so fantastic that as a musician you can really stretch out and kind of bend the work. It was oddly really easy, but I had to be completely reverent as well."