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
Friends of Cathedral Music clerks could watch the weekly football at Newark-on-Trent. There was also a similar incident at Truro Cathedral. Sibthorp, in an effort to reverse the decline in interest in cathedral music after World War II, sought to create a promoting organization the Cathedral Music Advisory Committee. However the committee failed to get off the ground, so he tried a new tack and sent a letter on June 2, 1956, that jump-started a new cathedral music organization, "The Friends of Cathedral Music". Until 1962 FCM met only once a year but because of the interest shown in FCM and due in a