If I do not return (2026)

The opera 'If I do not return' for 2 solo voices, 8 piece choir and 9 instruments it's a newly composed piece by Hania Rani with libretto formed exclusively with John Dowland's lyrics, edited and rearranged by Rani herself.

The plot of the piece is loosely inspired by Stanislaw Lem's philosophical sci-fi novel ' Solaris’. But "If I do not return’ doesn't attempt to translate Lem’s wonderful book onto the stage but rather is inspired exclusively by Solaris's female protagonist Hari, who becomes the main and only character of the newly composed opera (although she appears in duplicate) and is relocated to a conjured up realm with no estimated time or space. Indeed the opera features an unconventional narrative structure based on a geometrical shape of a Mobiüs Strip 

The main subject of the piece is exploration of time - its endlessness and omnipresence but also its limitations and possible variations. Instead of following just a single timeline the piece tries displaying it in an unconventional way, introducing different timelines that run simultaneously and observe how they influence each other, if at all.

The opera introduces us to the "possible" story of these characters and uses their figures metaphorically, pulling it towards a more philosophical angle running throughout the piece - the question of passing time, extinction, repetition of history and our personal relation to it. Those subjects are also at the core of renaissance texts by John Dowland and they conflate with an unexpected eagerness, creating a transhistorical bridge and enhancing their quality.