What becomes of letters that remain unopened and returned to sender? What of the thoughts, hopes and shared confidences trapped inside these envelopes?

Such is the guiding idea at the heart of Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Composer-in-Residence Katy Abbott’s contemporary opera Metropolis: Hidden Thoughts II, a work rooted in that frequently explored aspect of her work: connection.

Katie Abbott during rehearsals for Hidden Thoughts II: Return to Sender.

The libretto of this one-hour work for strings, solo spoken voice and mezzo-soprano (Lotte Betts-Dean in this case) is comprised of hundreds of letters, unopened and returned to sender, originally addressed to asylum seekers detained on the island nation of Nauru.

The letters selected provide a broad sweep of daily life within Australia and the shared wish for freedom for those detained. The title Metropolis, however, calls into question the accepted definition of the word, given that so much of the life experience recounted in these letters describe distinctly suburban activities.

Could the sprawling metropolis be the result of many smaller outer-city experiences? Perhaps this informs Abbott’s decision to utilise only the strings of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. As the diverse characters of the suburbs...