Lear

Lear divides up his kingdom amongst his three daughters. Cordelia, who cannot express her love for her father, is banned and leaves with the King of France. Kent, who disapproves of Lear’s decision, is banned. Goneril and her husband Albany, Regan and her husband Cornwall, divide the inheri- tance. By means of an intrigue, the bastard Edmund incites his father Gloster to cast out his half-brother Edgar. Kent, in disguise, enters into service with Lear. Goneril and Regan chase their father and his followers away. Lear, together with Kent and jester, wander through the heath. In a hut they meet Edgar, who hides his identity. The King is led to Dover by Gloster. Regan and Cornwall blind Gloster for siding with Lear. Goneril persuades Edmund to conspire with her; Albany implores Goneril to be moderate. Cordelia weeps for her father. Edgar, still disguised and unrecognised, leads his father to Dover. Lear and Gloster meet. A knight leads Lear away to Cordelia, who is in the French camp. Cordelia promises to her father he will be reinstated to power. Lear and Cordelia are imprisoned by Edmund, who gives the order for Cordelia to be strangled. Albany and Edmund fi ght for power; Regan is poisoned by Goneril and dies. Edgar avenges his father in a duel with Edmund; Edmund falls. Goneril gives up and stabs herself. Lear appears with the dead body of Cordelia. He collapses over her corpse.

"‘The standing chord begins to slowly vibrate from the bottom, like an earthquake’, this is how Reimann himself tries to describe the musical constellation in diary notes. For two and a half hours, the listener is captivated from the orchestra pit: with tone clusters of every intensity, quarter-tone frictions, several minutes of standing and turning sound surfaces, brass clusters of monstrous harshness, confusing rhythmic shifts, lyrical pausing of solo parts. These tonal means are applied for sharp characterization – of figures, demeanours, situations – never as mere material demonstration." (Wolfgang Schreiber, Süddeutsche Zeitung 11 July 1978)”