King Priam, a pacifist's opera, can still shed light on the trauma of war

Half a century after its first showing, Michael Tippett's libretto based on the Iliad is a fitting work for todayKing Priam was premiered 50 years ago this month in Coventry, to mark the consecration of the city's new cathedral. The following night, Benjamin Britten's War Requiem received its first performance. Both works spoke pointedly about the experience of war; the cathedral had been built alongside the ruins of its medieval predecessor, bombed to oblivion on the night of 16 November 1940. ...

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