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| A Love Story… |
| The Trojan War has survived the centuries as perhaps the most famous war in history. ‘Helen of Troy’; ‘The face that launched a thousand ships’; ‘Achilles Heel’; the great ‘Wooden Horse of Troy’ – there are few who would not be familiar, at the very least, with these legendary figures and expressions of myth and fable that have been passed down through the ages. There have been many stories, almost as many movies … and seemingly endless variations. |
| To some however, the legend of Troy is probably best known as a love story. ‘Paris’ is my version of that love story. It is the story of Paris, the younger son of King Priam and Hecuba of Troy, and of his part in the Trojan war, and of the manipulation of the gods and the goddesses who cast him in that role, all told through the ageless medium of music and song. |
| Along with his passion for music, my father instilled in me and my siblings a love for Greek mythology and ancient history. They were my bedtime stories as it were. As time went on, my desire to share some of this passion with the world became something of a burning ambition. And so … ‘Paris’ was born. |
| Like others before me, I admit I have played with the facts of this most famous of myths to suit my purpose (if the term ‘fact’ can indeed be applied in any way to a myth). Under that ironclad umbrella of ‘poetic license’, some of the major characters have been relegated to more minor roles, and for simplicity’s sake, the inclusion of some of the relevant gods has been left on the cutting room floor. |
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| The
Judgement of Paris, porcelain, Capitoline Museums, Rome |
| The classic love story itself has also been treated to a few twists and turns along the way, though I hope respectfully so, and the fact that Paris was killed on the battlefields before the fall of Troy has been ignored in favour of a more continuous interpretation. |
| Interspersed within our love story exists the theme of the divine balance between passion and order, law and chaos, or if you like, the head and the heart. Each character is flawed by his or her own imbalance between these two forces – represented by Athena, the Goddess of wisdom and war, and Aphrodite, the Goddess of love and passion. |
| ‘Paris’ gives us the opportunity to explore the darker side of love, its obsessiveness and all consuming passion, regardless of the consequences. In Sir Michael Tippet’s ‘King Priam’ he neatly sums up the resolute and tenacious passion that is the catalyst for the war when, in speaking to Hector’s wife and Queen Hecuba on the eve of the fall of Troy, Helen says: |
cannot know what men feel with me…
Intolerable desire, burning ecstasy.
All prices paid, all honour lost in bewilderment.
Immortal, incommensurable.
Love that reaches up to heaven, for it reaches down to hell.”
| Here then, is our musical offering to the story of Paris of Troy. Its simplicity of theme merely reflects the strength of its content throughout the ages, its songs pay tribute to the mythical elements that legend tells us gave birth to this most famous of all wars. |
| It is our ‘golden apple’ to Paris and Helen’s ‘immortal and incommensurable love’… |
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