Last year, for example, the BLO put on Peter Maxwell Davies's opera "The Lighthouse" at the John F.

WSJ: A Potent Biblical Bargain, Undermined | Clemency | Boston Lyric Opera | By Heidi Waleson

For the fourth Opera Annex show, the BLO co-commissioned "Clemency, " by the Scottish composer James MacMillan, with the Royal Opera House, Scottish Opera and the Britten Sinfonia, and presented its North American premiere at the Artists for Humanity EpiCenter on Boston's South Side last week.

WSJ: A Potent Biblical Bargain, Undermined | Clemency | Boston Lyric Opera | By Heidi Waleson

To make the evening a bit longer, the BLO grafted on a prelude with a related biblical subject: an English translation of "Hagar's Lament, " an early song by Franz Schubert, which depicts Sarah's handmaid Hagar, who has been driven into the desert by Sarah, mourning the imminent death of her son, Ishmael, from thirst.

WSJ: A Potent Biblical Bargain, Undermined | Clemency | Boston Lyric Opera | By Heidi Waleson