“Ukrainian composer Alisa Zaika offered “I (Romance)”, acing as her own librettist on a 1924 novella by Mykola Khvylovy. The story is experienced through the eyes of a KGB agent, known only as ‘I’; the composer explores the protagonist’s moral struggles. A hammer and sickle against a white backdrop forms the setting: Soviet government officials populate the stage’s upper stratum; a peasant woman below (‘Mother’) is equated with the Virgin Mary. Again, a split stage is used effectively, and a reference to Theosophy places the action nicely. The staging is phenomenal, the lighting again impressive. The ‘Mother’ counterpoints the male voices nicely, stunningly delivered by mezzo Amber Reeves; hers were the finest moments of Zaika’s score.”