The theme of King Priam is the mysterious nature of human choice, seen in the relations between Priam, King of Troy, Hecuba his wife, his sons Hector and Paris, and their wives Andromache and Helen.

Act I

In the crucial first scene, the Old Man, brought to interpret Priam's disturbed dreams, foretells that Priam's second son, Paris, still in the cradle, will cause 'as by an inexorable fate his father's death'. Hecuba makes an immediate and clear choice: 'Then I am mother no longer to this child. Troy and the city's king are sacred...Let the child be killed'. Priam's response is not so single-minded: 'A father and a king'. Though he orders the child to be killed #, he is troubled by compassion and conscience.

In an interlude, the chorus - made up of the Old Man, the Young Guard and the Nurse - reflet on these moral problems.

There follows a hunting scene. The child Paris has not been killed, but handed to a shepherd. Now, as young boy, Paris is re-united with his father Priam and his brother Hector. Priam, 'in a moment of recognition' reverses his choice, accepts paris as his son, and accepts the fate foretold for himself and Troy.

In scene 3, the two sons have grown to manhood. But Paris and Hector do not get on together. After Hector's marriage to Andromache, Paris goes to Greece ' where Menelaus keeps open house in Sparta with his wife, daughter of Zeus, Queen Helen'. Here Paris is faced with his choice: to provoke a war by abducting Helen or not. He implores Zeus to provid him with an answer.

Hermes, the messenger of the Gods, arrives to ensure that Paris makes a choice. He must give an apple to the most beautiful of three goddesses, Athene, Hera and Aphrodite. These are prototypes for the three women in his life: Hecuba, Andromache and Helen. By choosing Aphrodite, he opts for Helen, and thus sets in motion an inexorable sequence of events that will lead to war and the death of Priam.

Act II

The action shifts to Achilles' tent, where the Greek hero sits in his tent with his friend Patroclus, sulking. Achilles regains his manhood partially, allowing Patroclus to fight Hector on his behalf.

When the action returns to the Trojan camp, news is brought that Hector has killed Patroclus: the blood-stained body is dragged back for all to see. But this provokes the wrath of Achilles, whose ominous war-cry now punctures the confidence of the Trojans and brings the act to a climax of barbaric violence.

Act III

 In the opening scene, we hear the views of the women regarding the war and life's problems. An Hecuba remains the dutiful wife, mindful of her husband's regal position, the outcome of the war, the fate of the city. Andromache re-asserts her faith in the marriage bond, remaining the grieving widow. Helen remains outside it all, the one figure who never has to make a choice, faithful only to her inner passion.

In an interlude, the serving-maids show they too are aware of the realities around them.

Achilles, roused to action by Patroclus's death, kills Hector. In the second scene, Paris brings news of this to Priam and his world collapses. In a dialogue with the chorus (Nurse, Young Guard and Old Man), his mind returns to the crucial first scene of the opera: dimly he perceives tnat in accepting his fate, he is accepting the tragic destiny of mankind. The Nurse concludes, 'Measure him time with mercy': and time is then 'measured' in an instrumental interlude, during which the scene changes to Achilles's tent.

Priam now comes secretly to Achilles to beg for Hector's body. Achilles takes pity on him. They drink to each other's death.

In another Interlude, Hermes enters as a Messenger of Death, both recapitulating the story and offering a vision of 'divine music' to 'melt our hearts/renew our love.'

Priam, withdrawn into his tragic world, is now before the altar, as Troy burns. Hecuba and Andromache come to try and speak with him, but he tells Paris to send them away. Only Helen is allowed into his presence. Paris is sent off to kill Achilles. Priam is finally killed by Achilles's son Neoptolemus.

Michael Tippett

(revised by Meirion Bowen, 1998)