Chorale

Lyrics

[ENSEMBLE] The gods bless and so they curse For better or for worse Sire children with their human slaves They demand blind loyalty From beggars to royalty From the cradle to the grave An age of wisdom, madness and glory An age of war and brooding peace One chapter from an ageless story Known as Ancient Greece [HOMER, spoken] Achilles of Thessaly [ENSEMBLE] Cursed with flawed immortality [HOMER, spoken] Agamemnon of Mycenae [ENSEMBLE] In turn with ambition [HOMER, spoken] Ulysses of Ithaca [ENSEMBLE] Longs for peace and security Long be his road to achieve them [HOMER, spoken] Menelaus of Sparta [ENSEMBLE] Is granted the hand of Helen To share his throne He worships her beauty And thereby is damned For the gods have fashioned Her image on one of their own They give with one hand Take with the other Mystic schemes For mortals to discover Inside both human and divine Half truths Believable lies A glimpse of glory To covetous eyes Fashioned scenes where their end Justify their means An age of wisdom Madness and glory A time for atonement Sorrow or joy The gods watch as the tale unfolds Behind the walls of Troy [HOMER, spoken] Priam and Hecuba [ENSEMBLE] As regents of the nation Seek only for peace and prosperity [HOMER, spoken] Hector of Troy [ENSEMBLE] Their son, a soldier, a hero Who proudly caught his destiny [APHRODITE] Paris [ENSEMBLE] In love with life and his beauty Hears a goddess call his name Will he follows his head or his heart to her Or turn away in vain [APHRODITE] Oh Paris, come wander from your fold And grant me your apple cast from gold Answer my call I can offer it all Take me as your reward Be mine Paris For ever and ever [ENSEMBLE] A princess of Troy Watches over the boy And prays Her senses deceive her Only Cassandra can see what future hold And only her priest will believe her [CASSANDRA] Oh Paris I saw from the start One goddess One human counterpart [GREEKS, TROJANS] The gods give and so they take So with reason on a razor's edge They praise and humiliate The King of Troy makes a pledge Exploit the pleasure and the pain To send his son in search of peace, understanding and goodwill They destroy then compensate Will this nation ever be the same? Lavish love, extol the hate Or will insanity reign? Now a young man heeds the call, bewitched by a goddess Paris will you see the hidden truth? So the debt is called Or will you hide behind the mask of youth? [ALL] You should have known better