Clemency

Leading Scottish composer James MacMillan was one of the figures originally asked to take part in Scottish Opera’s Five:15 scheme, pairing musicians and writers to create new 15-minute musical works for the stage. His opera Clemency, jointly commissioned by Scottish Opera and three other international companies and receiving its Scottish premiere as part of the Edinburgh International Festival, is hardly much longer – but at barely 45 minutes, it still packs a terrifying punch.

The story is straight out of the Old Testament, with three mysterious strangers visiting Abraham and Sarah on their way to business in the ‘twin cities’ – Sodom and Gomorrah, although those names are never mentioned in Michael Symmons Roberts’s terse but evocative text. The shocking nature of their business slowly emerges as they tell tales of the atrocities carried out in the towns, and the ageing couple begs them to show mercy if good men can be found.

Katie Mitchell’s luminous production updates the action to an anonymous contemporary setting – perhaps the Middle East, or maybe another war-torn location. In a telling detail, the three strangers produce mobile phones to show pictures of the horrors they’ve witnessed in the cities. Resonances fly in all directions: at first the men’s threatening behaviour and bulging backpacks suggest they are terrorists, but as they change into smart suits we wonder if they’re acting in a more official capacity, for a government – or, perhaps, a vengeful God.

Janis Kelly is particularly strong as the weary Sarah, a study in forbearance, her voice betraying her years of toil, and Grant Doyle conveys Abraham’s inner conflicts vividly. MacMillan’s score, using an ensemble of strings alone, is hugely powerful, exploring the piece’s themes in music of a sometimes brutal directness – pounding rhythms, icy, suspenseful chords and brief moments of glowing consonance. The pace is fittingly slow, allowing plenty of time for reflection on the work’s themes, but the production’s lucid simplicity and directness only add to its astonishing power.