A man and a woman fall in love: of all operatic clichés, this is surely one of the most perennial. However, even before the curtain was raised at the Deutsche Oper, there were indications that there was much more to Heart Chamber than this simplification might suggest. Indeed, the trajectory of Chaya Czernowin's previous three operas, beginning with Pnima … Ins Innere (1998–99), followed by Zaïde / Adama (2004–05) and most recently Infinite Now (2016), which was reviewed in issue 282 of this publication, shows that this is a composer who seeks to explore and question the very nature of opera whenever she works within the genre.