King Priam King Priam King Priam is an opera by Michael Tippett, to his own libretto. The story is based on Homer's "Iliad", except the birth and childhood of Paris, which are taken from the "Fabulae" of Hyginus. The premiere was on 29 May 1962, at Coventry. The opera was composed for an arts festival held in conjunction with the reconsecration of the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral, for which Benjamin Britten also wrote his "War Requiem", which was first performed in the Cathedral the day after the premiere of "King Priam". The first Covent Garden performance was on 5 June, conducted by John
Music of Remembrance and reconstructed in the USA in 1942. Music specially commissioned by the company includes "Camp Songs" (2002) by Paul Schoenfield, five songs set to poems by who was interned in Sachsenhausen concentration camp. This piece was one of three finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2003 and was also on their first recording. Music of Remembrance also commissioned three pieces by Jake Heggie: "For a Look or A Touch" (2007, for baritone and actor), about the persecution of gay men during the Holocaust; "Another Sunrise" (2012, soprano), based on the life and work of Polish resistance member and