The Merchant of Venice (opera) In his will he left his skull to the Royal Shakespeare Company for use in productions of "Hamlet". Tchaikowsky met the theatre director John O'Brien in 1968 and they agreed to attempt an opera on "The Merchant". O'Brien has noted "At first it seemed odd that [Tchaikowsky], as a Jew, would want to take Shylock on, particularly at a time when there was a feeling that Shakespeare was anti-Semitic, which is a nonsensical thing anyway." Most of the opera was written by 1978, and following discussions with the music critic Hans Keller, Tchaikowsky decided to submit it for consideration to
Shakespeare in Love (play) Royal, Nottingham (15 to 20 October), Festival Theatre, Malvern (23 to 27 October), Oxford Playhouse (30 October to 3 November), Cambridge Arts Theatre (5 to 9 November), King's Theatre, Edinburgh (12 to 17 November) and Chichester Festival Theatre (20 to 24 November), with further dates and casting to be announced. It was announced in August 2018 that Shakespeare in Love will be one of the two headlining productions for the 30th Anniversary of Bard on the Beach in the Kitsilano Neighbourhood in Vancouver, British Columbia. Shakespeare in Love (play) Shakespeare in Love is a play by Lee Hall adapted from