[1] Sallinen has spoken of the major thought that went into recreating the dramaturgy of the piece, shortening sections and deleting characters from the cast.

[1] Sallinen was particularly inspired by knowing the cast from the start, especially leading Finnish singers Matti Salminen and Jorma Hynninen.

[3] Scene 1 The aged King Lear decides to divide his realm between his three daughters Goneril, Regan and Cordelia.

Goneril and Regan are disturbed by their father's outburst and his folly in having a large retinue of knights and squires.

Scene 3 – a forest Edgar has hidden in a tree-trunk to elude his pursuers; he now disguises himself as ‘Poor Tom’, a beggar, to avoid capture.

Lear curses Regan; Goneril supports her sister, and they both finally insist that the King get rid of all his followers.

Five knights report the Duke of Cornwall's death, killed by his own servant after he and Regan had destroyed Gloucester's eyes, as they considered him a traitor.

Scene 8 – Forest Gloucester has been blinded by Cornwall and Regan, and walks along a road where he encounters Edgar, still as Poor Tom.

Gloucester cannot recognize his own son, and asks Poor Tom to take him to the edge of Dover cliffs; when there he will need no more help.

A furious row between Goneril and Regan ends with the latter going off ill. A knight arrives; he challenges Edmund to a duel taunting him as a traitor.

Edgar announces that Gloucester is dead; knights come in to report that Goneril has killed herself after confessing to giving Regan poison.