Romeo and Juliet (Tchaikovsky) a literary program. Thus, Balakirev had transformed "King Lear" into an instrumental drama and now offered it as a model to Tchaikovsky. While basing "Romeo and Juliet" on "King Lear" was Balakirev's suggestion, reducing the plot of the former to one central conflict and then combining it with the binary structure of sonata form was Tchaikovsky's idea. However, executing that plot in the music we know today came only after two radical revisions. The first version of "Romeo and Juliet" contained basically an opening fugato and a confrontation of the two themes—exactly what an academically trained composer might be expected
Romeo and Juliet executed, and Friar Laurence offers Juliet a plan to reunite her with Romeo, the audience can still hope that all will end well. They are in a "breathless state of suspense" by the opening of the last scene in the tomb: If Romeo is delayed long enough for the Friar to arrive, he and Juliet may yet be saved. These shifts from hope to despair, reprieve, and new hope serve to emphasise the tragedy when the final hope fails and both the lovers die at the end. Shakespeare also uses sub-plots to offer a clearer view of the actions of